Cold again. The coldest winter in Beijing since the dawn of time. Or at the very least, since the last ice age. What, on earth, has happened to global warming? But, what's that, blue sky?? And windless?? The sky was so blue, I stared at it for what seemed like an age. In most parts of the world, this would be considered very odd behaviour, but those of you who have spent any time in Beijing, will understand my reaction. I hadn't seen sky this colour since the Olympics - when all construction work was stopped, all factories closed down, and most of the cars taken off the road.

As I was staring at the sky, a thought entered my head.

I ran to the garage. Yes, it was still there (I had rode it back from the pub last autumn). What's more, the tyres still had air in them.

I donned two shirts, two jumpers, a jacket, an overcoat, thermal gloves and my thickest woolly hat, and I was away.

The last time I had cycled by the Wenyu River, I had to push the bike further than I could ride it (they were in the process of replacing the perfectly good track with a road that was wider than most of those in Norfolk). The road was now finished, and what a wonderfully engineered road it was (this project alone must have made an important contribution to Chaoyang district's GDP).

Of course there were no cars on it, because the road connects places that people don't want to go to. I would normally scoff at the waste of money of such projects and ridicule the intentions of the civil servants behind it. But what a great cycling track!

I was able to cycle by the Wenyu river for 20 kilometres north-west. But that's where the good news ends, because it was bloody freezing and I saw very few birds.

But there were a few signs of spring in the form of huge flocks of Daurian Jackdaws (several hundred birds in total, including a few immatures); and a small party of Eastern Rooks (no idea if anyone will ever get round to checking its DNA, but so what).

Photos of 2 "new" birds for 2010:

189 Daurian Jackdaw (adults and an immature)
190 Eastern Rook (pastinator)

Also:

Mallard, 500
Gadwall, 5
Teal, few
Smew, 5 (1 male, 4 "redheads")
Great Spotted Woodpecker, 2
Eastern Buzzard, 1
Rustic Bunting (singing)
Hoopoe, 1
Little Grebe, 5
Green Sandpiper, 1