I think this may have been the first big St. George's Day festivals in Nottingham after people realised that more was made of the special days from other countries (e.g. St. Patrick's Day) while our own kind of went unnoticed.

Apparently the Nottingham one is now one of the biggest.

Mostly just pictures of Great Crested Grebe as one was very accommodating, fishing just under the bridge near the car park. With it being so close and spending so long fishing, I hoped I'd get at least one decent shot!

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.

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.

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 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.