From blossoming trees<\/a> and leaping dolphins<\/a> to magical Scottish rivers and quaint Yorkshire towns, we\u2019ve come across some amazing photography while putting together the March 2022 issue of BBC Countryfile Magazine.<\/em><\/p>\n Celebrate the month ahead with our photo gallery of beautiful photographs from around the UK countryside in March.<\/p>\n Related articles<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> In spring, the common toad\u2019s shrunken appearance after hibernation \u201callows one to notice\u2026 that a toad has about the most beautiful eye of any living creature. It is like gold, or more exactly, it is like the golden-coloured semi-precious stone which one sometimes sees in signet-rings,\u201d wrote George Orwell in his 1946 essay.<\/p>\n RSPB Highnam Woods Nature Reserve<\/a> is part of the largest area of ancient woodland in the Severn Vale, with a series of rides and glades, managed scrubland and piles of dead wood, making it a refuge for a wide range of fauna and flora. It is particularly special in spring when the melodies of birds fill the reserve.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n If you\u2019re lucky, you will hear the enchanting calls of the nightingale<\/a>. The RSPB maintains a scrub and\u00a0coppice habitat here for these woodland songsters, who return in April to nest and raise their young among the cuckooflowers, wood anemones and plentiful bluebells that shine atop the forest floor like starlight.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n One of the most awe-inspiring clouds you can encounter is the roll cloud. This long, horizontal, rotating wall of darkness marks a boundary of dense and lighter air. As the air rises, it condenses into a rapidly rotating cylinder of thick, dark cloud.<\/p>\n From a distance, the roll cloud appears to be moving at walking pace, but as it gets closer to you, the sky rapidly descends into darkness, sometimes accompanied by gusty winds,\u00a0heavy rain and hail.<\/p>\n Found in and around the big seabird<\/a> colonies but nests at the tops of cliffs in rabbit burrows on grassland. Bill only takes on its rainbow colours during the breeding season. Over 500,000 pairs breed in the UK.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n On the Isle of Wight, spring can appear out of the blue: a clear day with warm southerly winds may push the first show-stopping migrants<\/a> across the Channel. These include thousands of swallows<\/a>, house martins and sand martins returning from Africa to breed, timing their arrival with the explosion in the population of insects \u2013 triggered by the warm weather \u2013 on which to feed themselves and their voracious chicks.<\/p>\n One of the very first places to welcome spring arrivals to the UK is the high downs that bunch together in the south-east corner of the Isle of Wight<\/a> (pictured). This is where the chalk spine of downlands that crosses the island finally runs out of steam and collapses into a heap of undulating ridges. Extremely easy on the eye, these fall away precipitously into a series of concentric punchbowl valleys.<\/p>\n Outside the Yorkshire Dales National Park<\/a>, Lower Wensleydale offers peaceful walking enhanced by early spring wildflowers and birdsong.<\/p>\n West Tanfield<\/a> sits at the eastern end of the dale alongside the River Ure, where a graceful arched stone bridge spans the water. The 15th-century Marmion Tower sits squarely next to the older church of St Nicholas. Now in the care of English Heritage, Marmion Tower is three storeys tall, features a beautiful oriel window and was once the imposing gatehouse to a long-vanished riverside manor house.<\/p>\n Glancing up between Edinburgh<\/a>\u2018s city buildings, a scraggly flock of pink-footed geese flies north, marking the end of an Edinburgh winter. As spring unfolds, the last winter visitors linger on: waxwings feast on tree-top berries, whooper swans patrol the lochs and white-winged gulls scour the beaches.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Then the spring migrants begin to trickle in \u2013 if you\u2019re lucky, you may even spot a bluethroats \u2013 very rare passage migrants sometimes seen along the east coast of the British Isles. It\u2019s a time of much excitement, when a day of birding can conjure the unexpected and the city\u2019s nature reserves really shine.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Further afield, East Lothian presents exciting coastal birding. As the terns, gannets and other seabirds<\/a> return, spring gems turn up in the coastal scrub, including redstarts, whinchats and\u00a0the occasional bluethroat. Snow buntings and water pipits linger on the beaches and Aberlady Bay<\/a> is blanketed with waders at high tide.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Come early spring, leaves and buds are bursting, invertebrates are multiplying, new flowers appear every day, rolling out white, yellow or blue carpets. Already the resident birds have been in full song for weeks. They have territories and most are already paired. Warm spring weather releases teeming invertebrates to provide most of the new arrivals with plenty to eat. The woods and hedgerows await.<\/p>\n Once the spring migrants do arrive, they tend to breeze in. The first brave chiffchaff (pictured) may seem to haunt the willow blossom meekly but\u00a0it is a bird on a mission. The pioneers are in a hurry, with just one thing on their minds: they must get settled as soon as possible and establish a territory.<\/p>\nGolden eye<\/h3>\n
![\""Animal\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/22\/2021\/02\/Common-toad-eye-8bb12b9.png?quality=90&resize=619%2C413"\" "\\"\"Common\\"")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Sublime song<\/h3>\n
![\""Bird\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/22\/2022\/01\/Nightingale-85dff8c.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"Nightingale\\"")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Roll cloud<\/h3>\n
![\""Stormy\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/22\/2022\/02\/Roll-clouds-8c83e53.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C412"\" "\\"\"Roll\\"")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Sea parrot<\/h3>\n
![\""Seabird\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/22\/2021\/02\/Farne-Island-puffin-52f9c8d.png?quality=90&resize=619%2C413"\" "\\"\"Farne\\"")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Spring island<\/h3>\n
![\""Spring\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/22\/2021\/02\/Isle-of-Wight-downs-above-Sandown-Bay-447c134.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C411"\" "\\"\"Downs\\"")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>West Tanfield<\/h3>\n
![\""Village\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/22\/2021\/02\/West-Tanfield-2624ef7.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"West\\"")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Blue throat<\/h3>\n
![\""Small\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/22\/2021\/02\/Bluethroat-e29ca2f.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"White\\"")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Aberlady Bay<\/h3>\n
![\""coast\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/22\/2021\/02\/Aberlady-Bay-Scotland-52859f2.png?quality=90&resize=610%2C413"\" "\\"\"Aberlady\\"")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Chiffchaff bloom<\/h3>\n
![\""Small\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/22\/2020\/02\/Chiffchaff-in-spring-blossom-ffe21e0.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"Chiffchaf\\"")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>York\u00a0Shambles, North Yorkshire<\/h3>\n