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Leicestershire

It's a floral phenomenon that has baffled botanists - an early explosion of spring plants flowering at the wrong time. In a normal cold winter, botanists would expect no more than 20 to 30 types of wild plants to be in flower in Britain at this time of year. But a couple of years ago 612 plants were found to be in bloom on New Year's Day. That's 20 times as many species as botanists' bibles suggest. \n\nAnita Rani joins some budding 'citizen scientists' taking in the New Year Plant Hunt. Leicestershire has more than 300 rare species of plant, but they're being lost at a rapid rate. Anita visits Leicester University's herbarium to investigate the city's plants' past, present and future. \n\nSteve Brown gets to know some of Rutland Water's winter visitors better and looks forward to the Big Garden Birdwatch, as well as meeting the young birdwatchers taking part and revealing how to take part in this years' event. \n\nTom Heap looks at the problems faced by rural fire services.

Source: BBC 1