I have been lucky enough to have seen quite a few over the years, some of them down to a few feet. However this bird that I have attached actually walked within 1" of my feet, and other birds feet as well) at Chasewater, near Brownhills on 30/11/2003. As I was digiscoping at the time I couldn't actually take a photo of the bird that close. Now if I had my DSLR then I can only imagine the photos I would have got.
John