We welcome Penny Walker, 2026 story writer-in-residence, who invites you discover a chilly morning walk

We didn’t see in the New Year. We woke long before dawn to drop our daughter and her husband at the airport. At South Mimms services the universe rewards us with veggie sausages, a cyber pink sunrise and the year’s first birds: robin, pied wagtail, rook. It is bad birding luck to start the year with a pigeon. 

The early start means we get to Lee Valley Regional Park when the grass is still iced. I have leggings under my walking trousers, two hats, two pairs of gloves. At the farm there are geese: Canada, Egyptian, greylag geese and one barnacle. No sign of the white-fronted geese – locally rare – we have come to see. 

The hedges are bountiful with sloes and hawthorn berries. There is more grass than you might expect for midwinter. The puddle ice is thick and clear. Maybe the bittern will be forced out from the reedbed into the open. The men in the visitor centre agree that it’s not cold enough for the winter’s interesting visitors: if the lakes don’t freeze further north, migratory swans won’t need to fly south to our corner of Britain. 

We walk along the towpath, and find arabesque-billed goosanders and lemon yellow siskin. There are few enough other walkers that we all give each other new year wishes. People carrying binoculars get the ritual question: much about? 

Three small children are dancing with excitement at the grey heron posing on the far bank. We lend our binoculars and they take turns, adjusting the focus to make what’s far away seem very close. 

A text says our daughter is changing at Frankfurt. Next stop Tokyo. 

We walk back to the farm and see the white-fronted geese through someone else’s telescope. They look so like greylag that we need the reassurance of other birders to add them to our list. 

The frost has gone but the ice we cracked hours ago persists. 

Forty-one species, not counting birds I saw but he didn’t. A good first day talisman for the year.