Rough and ready, unedited set of pics from Andy's Loukes' stag do. There might be some dodgy quality ones, as I just uploaded as quickly as possible.

A proper test of my new camera: London in the Winter sun. The lack of an image stabiliser coupled with the low light conditions made for some frustrations, but it wasn't as grainy as I thought when I first got it: I'd accidentally pressed the high speed button and got a high-ISO, very grainy pic. Also don't know how to use the rose properly - it's supposed to shield the lens from glare, but just ended up getting in the way of my wide-angled shots.

We weren't quite sure what the hell was going on when we started getting ushered down this covered roadway, until we ended up with a big crowd of people watching the Horse Guards doing their thing - so, a nice surprise in the end.

For some time now my parents have spotted foxes in their suburban garden, and so while I'm staying with them I've been putting food out to try to see them for myself. Sure enough, we have what appears to be a breeding pair venturing in at around the same time every night, just as it's getting dark. There definitely seems to be a male and female, often coming into the garden separately but also occasionally at the same time. However, we haven't seen any young yet, which may be due to the trickiness of getting through our fence (the hole is quite high up).

These foxes have been seen jumping from a standing start up on to an ivy-covered chickenwire fence, and balancing on the top before jumping down. One of them also appears to sleep on the roof of our shed when the weather's sunny, which would require some ivy-climbing prowess.

A medieval battle re-enactment at Nottingham Castle.

Despite being Nottingham born and bred, I'd never been on the guided tour under the Castle - the caves known as "Mortimer's Hole". So on a trip back to the city (when I still lived in Chichester), my folks finally took me. As well as looking at spooky caves and dungeons, you also get to hear a lot about the history of Nottingham, including the Saxon foundation (at the Lacemarket nearby) and the start of the Civil War (the raising of the Royal Standard at Standard Hill near the Castle - apparently no-one took much notice and they moved on).

There's also some photographs of the Queen Elizabeth pub on Bottle Lane - just before it got knocked down.

It seems like every year, after spending cash on better equipment, I get just slightly better photos of the Peregrines on Chichester Cathedral.

The first year, the pics I took were with a 3x zoom lens which just about captured enough information to identify the bird by shape. Last year the 10x zoom on my camera allowed me to see markings etc. This year the 10x zoom lens was beefed up with a 1.7x attachment, and you can just see the glint in the bird's eye, even if the pics are grainy and heavily cropped. Maybe next year I'll have a telescope attached to a camera, and get... well, just slightly better pictures.

Gabi's leaving do in the Nag's Head

This is my attempt at some solo birdwatching, which is to say, going out on a cold, windy day, take a lot of photographs, and hope that I can make them out when I'm back somewhere warm. A couple of short movies I took on the day didn't make the cut - I took them more to get the sounds of the Redshank warning calls, but all I got was the sound of the wind.

To cut to the chase, there's a lot of Redshank here, along with Dunlin, Oystercatcher, and Grey Plover. Oh, and the usual Mute Swan, gulls etc.

The Nottingham RSPB post-Christmas walk. A good day for Treecreepers, Nuthatches and Greater Spotted Woodpeckers; however, of the dozen or so shots I took of Treecreepers there was only one really good one. Better than none at all though!

Just a few more colourful sunsets from my home city.