A trip to Norfolk, looking for King Eider at Titchwell, Rough-legged Buzzard, and Lesser Yellowlegs at Stiffkey. We got the latter, but the light was so bad that hardly anything came out from that leg of the trip - which is a shame, as we got some great views of Redshank on the banks of some of the channels.

Titchwell was pretty good for Robins - they came extremely close - and some waders, but the light was variable and so action shots were right out.

Taken before the visitor's centre was opened - the door's still boarded up.

The reason there are twitchers in some of the photographs was due to the appearance of a Sora Rail, the photographs of which are elsewhere.

At the end of December a rare Sora Rail arrived in Nottinghamshire, a long way from its usual stomping grounds in America (perhaps migrating when it got pushed off course by one of the many hurricanes this year?). There have only been around a dozen ever seen in the UK, so it attracted quite a bit of attention. Some week or so after it first appeared I got a chance to see it in person, and after only a few minutes of waiting it not only appeared, but almost walked right up to the waiting crowd.

The photographs below show quite clearly what distinguishes this bird from other rails - the beak colour, the white on the tail, even the white dot near the eye.

The weather wasn't great, so the usual Winter problem of dark, blurry photos reared its head again.

Wandering around London, killing time between meetings.

There should really be more photographs of this momentous occasion, but frankly I was pissed. But in the good way.

Up in Liverpool doing server installs, we had an afternoon off to have a wander...

The Riverside Festival on the Embankment is a bit like a large country fair - fairground rides, traction engines, crafts and stalls, food from around the world, boat races.   On the Saturday night however there's also a huge firework display, where you can sit on the river bank and watch the explosions across the water, reflected in the river.

A trip up to Liverpool, and doing the Beatles tour.

The Robin Hood Festival in 2004