The title was stolen from Stephen Lowe's introduction of me on the BBC Radio Lancashire " Great Outdoors" show. I will be writing several times during the year, but not always with the same organisation each time. Like too many people this winter, I have had a very bad cough and needed to get out in the open air. My first opportunity came on a Winter Bird Walk for the Friends of Cuerden Valley Park. We travelled past our bird feeders where we noted coal tits, nuthatch, robins and chaffinches. Next stop was over the wooden bridge looking and listening for a kingfisher without success. On arrival at the lake it was good to see a great crested grebe in winter plumage alongside some goosanders, mallards, a coot, moorhen and a grey heron. On the return journey a song thrush was belting out his song, a charm of goldfinches added their contribution, a nuthatch's call sounding like the woodwinds and rounded off from a woodpecker drumming away with percussion.
A couple of weeks later, I joined the North Lancashire Bat Group on a survey of hibernating bats. Most of the other members were licensed bat workers and I was there to observe and learn. The damp day had been preceded by a couple of very rainy ones, so extreme caution over the muddy ground was the order of the day. We investigated two caves and a tunnel. The second cave had a very narrow entrance. I did attempt to enter, but my lack of activity over the winter had a negative effect on my flexibility. I therefore chose caution over valour and came out early. I did enter the tunnel and as before took great care to look out for any animals clinging on to the walls. We were rewarded by noting a brown long-eared bat trying to hide behind a snail shell in a cranny in the roof. On our way back for a warming cup of tea, I noted some King Alfred's Cake fungus and Dog Mercury flowering .
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