The deep snow and freezing temperatures of a couple of weeks ago were but a distant memory today, cycling along the River Isar south from Munich city centre, where my first butterfly of the year (well, in Europe anyway!) was a male Brimstone flying across the path and off into the zoo...
The Great Tits and Nuthatches were as noisy as ever, full of the joys of the lengthening days, as were several Great Spotted Woodpeckers, chasing each other around the trees or drumming a little half heartedly.
Equally noisy were a pair of Marsh Tits: now I'm not sure if I've ever actually heard Marsh Tits singing before, or if I have it must have been so long ago that I didn't register it. But this pair put on a lovely display, torn as they were between coming down to eye ball me and paying more amorous attention to each other.
It is still too early for many other birds in the woods, to be honest. A Wren here or a Blackbird there, maybe a couple of Treecreepers, but nothing else.
However, quite a surprise was the level of activity on the woodland floor. Pretty much every time I stopped cycling, there would be the noise of scurrying amongst the fallen leaves as yet another Bank Vole bounced away. In the couple of hours I was out I saw easily 15 or more, some of whom were quite happy to go about their business with me watching a couple of metres away: clearing out their burrows, searching through the wood piles and leave litter for those nuts and seeds that they stashed before the snows came.
They weren't the only ones cache-emptying, as a beautifully sooty Red Squirrel was also patting about a little absent mindedly, wondering just where it was he left those last few beech nuts...
But entertaining though Marsh Tits and Bank Voles are, they weren't what I'd come out to find...
Back in November, when I first came out along this stretch of river I noticed plenty of tri-lobed leathery leaves of Hepatica nobilis, a flower I've previously only seen from a moving vehicle and I've been waiting ever since for the chance to come out and find the first flowers of the spring. And only in ones and twos, but find them I did.
Not far away, a sunny glade was pretty much full of flowering Crocuses, with plenty of noisy Honey Bees in attendance. Something tells me these were probably planted (as with the clumps of Snowdrops and Winter Aconite elsewhere), but they looked pretty nice nonetheless.
And finally back on the river and into the city again, where the Mute Swans are always very friendly. One pair in particular, after some displaying and general nuzzling of each other, decided to waddle up the bank and sit down next to me for a sun bathe...
Not quite so photogenic but equally appreciative of the warm sun were the first nudists of the year... now I know it's warm, but it really isn't THAT warm!
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