Prima rosa

The first day of the year when I've been able to go for a walk without wearing a coat - the sunshine and light breeze made it feel positively toasty in sheltered spots, though there was still a nip in the air when the sun disappeared behind a cloud. 

My afternoon walk took me round Ring Haw and Stonepit Close - two former limestone quarries that are now managed as nature reserves. The wildlife hasn't quite caught up with the spring-like conditions, but the woodland and track margins at Ring Haw were sprinkled with the cheerful yellow flowers of primrose, while elsewhere the green flowers of spurge-laurel and stinking hellebore were looking very splendid.

However, my main excitement of the day was putting up three woodcock from the mosaic of scrub and grassland. I didn't see any last year, though they're not uncommon winter visitors to the Peterborough area. At one time, in the 1980's, they used to breed locally, but sadly that's no longer the case. This brings my total number of birds seen in 2021 to 79, not too shabby considering all have been recorded within about twenty  minutes drive of home.