Well there were the three Little Gulls chasing the ferry, a few miles off Zeebrugge - looking for all the world, at first glance in the early morning light, like overgrown waders.

Then there was the White Stork stood, incongruously, on a shop forecourt. at first we thought it was a fibreglass model, but then it's head moved & we also noticed a silver grey leg ring. The books said that many White Storks are feral or escapes, so I had doubts about 'claiming' it. However, on return last night, I checked a Dutch sightings website &, sure enough, two different birders reported a White Stork in the village we were in (Cadzand-Bad) on the day we saw the bird. So, lifer, you are mine!

Finally, there was the bittern who insisted that we got it's i.d. correct. I must admit that I was looking at a grey heron at the edge of a pond some yards from the path we were on. My wife asked me what that 'bird like tree stump' was - about 30 yards to the right of the heron. Over 15 minutes the bittern then gave a magnificent, left profile; neck in air; right profile; display, before moving off into a patch of thicker reeds. All my few British views of bitterns have been of the brief, virtually hidden, type, but this sighting was text book. Oh, happy day!!

A brilliant long weekend away (it was a belated 60th birthday present), & all on less total mileage (OK, we had an overnight ferry crossing each way to contend with) than a round trip to London.