Our timing was good but totally fortuitous, the Queen Victoria, Canard’s smaller sister (Queen Mary 2 and Elizabeth being larger) was due into Liverpool on the morning we were heading back to Wales.

Liverpool’s regeneration has seen the world’s finest ocean liners visiting the port again and evoking memories of earlier times when my mum and dad used to go down to the Pier Head on a Saturday and watch the liners come in and out and muse over the people that disembarked. She was visiting as part of Canard’s 170 year old association with the port of Liverpool.

She was due to birth at 9.00am but I couldn’t find any information on when she would be coming up the Mersey past Burbo Bank. I wasn’t sure if she’d go straight to the birth or hold up a while before coming along side and I didn’t want to miss her. It meant an early start and I arrived in heavy drizzle soon after seven.

You get a really fine view over the upper Mersey from Burbo Bank and I’m not a great fan of crowds so I had no intention of going to the landing stage in front of the Three Graces to see her, it was expected there would be hundreds of thousands descending on the city. Also at this spot there’s the added advantage of using Gormley’s Iron Men, the art work is actually officially called ‘Another Place’, within the images.

The topography of the river at this point means that any ship entering the Mersey when first in sight appears, initially, to be heading away from the port. They have to skirt the sand bank and turn sharply to the right before entering the main channel. This means that for a brief moment they appear head on, a dramatic aspect and one I was keen not to miss.

Queen Victoria’s statistics are impressive, if not quite in the same league as the Queen Mary 2; 90,000 gross tonnage; 2,000 passengers and 1,000 crew; 965 feet long and 106 feet wide with a draft of 26 feet; 10 decks and she’s the only cruise liner to boast a Royal Court Theatre with private boxes.

All very impressive but at the expense, I feel, of the classic lines exhibited by the earlier Queens, Elizabeth, Mary and even the slightly more recent and modern lines of the QE2. As Victoria tuned to face head on it had the look of a oil rig or a floating building site that would soon become a rather predictably square looking hotel. Those earlier Queens were not much smaller than Victoria but had something of the ’ship’ about them.

The age of the great ocean liners and the steam trains has been deeply ingrained within me. Dad had a love of both, collected the trains and modelled the ships. They still have pride of place at the family home and are a constant reminder of great days. One of my favourite portraits of dad, taken a few years before he died, is of him tending to his collection of ships. Ships that still looked like ships. Im not sure he’d have been quite as enthusiastic to add to his collection the Cunard’s of today.

On a recent brief trip up north, Barrow and Liverpool I managed a few short forays out with the camera. The images in this post were taken at Askam pier, about a hundred yards from where my brother lives.

It’s a good spot for all sorts, Barn Owl (Phil’s description of seeing it at Askam) Egrets; waders, and small passerines. Last year I photographed a group of Twite on the pier. I only had an hour on this occasion but managed to spend it with a Ringed Plover. The beauty about the end of the pier (it’s really more than a pier in the conventional sense, more a brick and stone built protrusion into the estuary, which at its end is 50 or so meters wide) is that there are different levels due to erosion, which means it’s possible to get on the same plane with the birds. I’ve always liked photographing at a low level as you feel so much more involved with the subject, as if you are entering its own view of the habitat it lives within.

An hour or so on the Lancashire mosses provided an unexpected encounter with a number of hares. I went primarily for the Barn Owl, but it didn’t show. The first run down Engine Lane bought the first hare, it was one of seven separate sightings I was to have in the time I was there.

I’ve spent a good deal of time on the mosses and whilst I’ve often seen the hares they’ve been far out in the fields or deeply tucked up in the margins. On this occasion they were obviously using the roads as ‘runs’ probably because the vegetation in the field was so high and dense. When thinking about it I haven’t generally been on the mosses in July so maybe this is normal at this time of year and it’s actually as good a time to see them. It was getting toward dusk, which was also in my favour.

Most of the sightings saw the hare at the side of the road and then once it had seen me, and that couldn’t have been that difficult as I was in the VW, it would turn away and I’d be dealing with the rear end as it shot of into the distance, but still using the road rather than diving into the vegetation.

On one occasion though the reverse happened. Again the hare appeared some fifty yards away but rather than turn heal it bounded towards me and stopped when not more than twenty yards away. By this time I had also managed to open the van door and use the ‘V’ created by the door and body of the car as a rest for the camera. It stayed at this point for a good five minutes, slowly relaxing as it’s ears lowered from the upright alert position they had initially been in.

The famous Waterloo Cup was run on these fields from 1836 to 2005, and was regarded as the blue riband event for hare coursing. Curiously it had links with an even more prestigious sporting event still held in Liverpool, the Grand National. Both events were started by a Mr. William Lynn, proprietor of the Waterloo Hotel in Ranelagh Street. Having seen the commercial benefits the Waterloo Cup had brought to the area when it was first run in 1836 he decided to turn his attention to the turf and the inaugriul Grand National was run three years later.

There is an interesting debate as to the rights and wrongs of animal sport. Hare coursing was banned in England and Wales as a result of the hunting act of 2004 and the Waterloo cup has not been run since 2005.

In the years prior to the act the land was managed for hares and a good population was ensured for the annual event. The same can be said for grouse in other areas of the country, although the extent that some gamekeepers went to protect their birds had a dramatic effect on the bird of prey population. Regarding hares the National Coursing Club states:

‘The League Against Cruel Sports has found itself in a moral dilemma when field sports undeniably guarantee game conservation. This is reflected in its muddled response. The League makes wild claims as to the numbers of hares killed in coursing and hare hunting, and yet admits in a circular to MPs that “we accept that the majority of hares coursed are not killed.” The Game Conservancy’s 1990 Hare Report showed that a coursing meeting temporarily reduces the hare population in the immediate area by an average of 5.1%, and beagling by an average of 2.1%. The Conservancy acknowledges that part of this figure is caused by hares temporarily dispersing from the area and not by kills. In a matter of days these hares return to their original home.

The League likes to pour scorn on the introduction of hares on to estates as a conservation input, claiming that the environment will not sustain the higher numbers. As at Altcar, the introduction of new stock is only part of a scheme which must include new attitudes in the farming and keepering of the land. The hares introduced come from estates where they are in abundance and where otherwise they would have been shot for control purposes. They are never coursed until they have had the chance to become completely familiar with and acclimatised to their new home.

Because so few hares are killed in coursing and hare hunting, opponents have been forced to stress the claim that the hare suffers cruelty in pursuit. Nature has designed the hare from birth to defend itself with its agility, speed and alertness to danger.’

It’s a difficult one because watching footing of the Waterloo Cup and having visited it in the early eighties it’s not a good sight to see the hare being chased to the kill. I hope that the population stabilizes and can hold onto to its pre hunting act numbers otherwise the dilemma returns and there appears to be no easy answer.

The location and time of day meant that I was always going to be on the limit with the camera settings.

The images were taken at 800 ISO with a 300mm lens and an aperture of 2.8. The hide is deep in the woods with a heavy canopy and the evening we spent there was overcast. The light only allowed for about an hours work before it became too dark. I didn’t want to use flash, as without total control of artificial lighting the results can be disappointing.

The Devon Badger Watch is run by the Atkinsons and we were taken too the hide and given a very full history of the sett by Anne, who couldn’t have been more helpful throughout our time on their land. One of the finest natural history moments I have for many a year!

I’ve managed a couple of good days in the last week at the farm. The squirrels are playing complete havoc with the feeding station by the river, total destruction of some so called ’squirrel proof’ feeders. A bit more creative thinking required!

Good numbers of Green Sandpipers are on the river. It’s never easy to be sure how many as once flushed they wheel back on themselves and you never quite know if your looking at the same birds. A definite four this week though as they were seen all together. Kingfishers are pretty active with at least two young on the river at the moment and the Dippers are around. Sand Martins appear to have left the banks so no late broods this year, although they remain around the lake.

The Green Sandpiper is such a nervy bird and you’ve got to sit it out under as much camouflage as possible to have any chance of getting close. These birds will over winter on the farm now; they add so much character to the river with their striking alarm call a constant companion. All the regulars are around, although the Mash Tit has not been seen at all this year.

A new species photographed at the farm this week was the Blackcap. I’d been watching the female (the male doesn’t seem to be around at the moment) a couple of times in the same location over the last couple of weeks, so set myself up in the spot and waited. I’ve always found them an elusive bird, often hearing but not that often seeing them. This winter we’ll start feeding some fruit and berries and see if we can bring them into the feeding station.

Whilst on the river waiting for the Sandpipers a Mink shot passed, as if on a mission, on the opposite bank. Good numbers of Herons are around, five in the trees along the river, although the Cormorants are noticeable by their absence and not showing in anything like the numbers of a year or so ago. Young Buzzards are in the top field and in a few weeks we’ll have a look at baiting them and see what happens.

It was not the best time to see the Red Deer but with a little luck and patience we managed a few good sightings.

In the summer stags are less inclined to move into the open and when they do they are pretty difficult to approach – down wind and without breaking the horizon give the best chance. Considering there’s around 3,000 of them in the National Park they’re not that easy to see.

At this time of the year (June) they generally form separate stag and hind herds, although mixed and single animals are not an uncommon site. The stags here were taken from about 70 or 80 yards away. We had stalked then as slowly and as quietly as we could with all factors in our favour and still they clocked us early on. The hinds were all taken in the evening as they came down from the higher ground. We were really lucky to get a small group very close to the road on an evening which saw some very rich light. It was around 9.30pm and we were on our way back after a walk over Dunkery Beacon. They were taken from the van with the 300mm. An hour or so earlier I had been stalking a group of about 15 hinds as they slowly left the moors and reached the lower ground.

Less common are the Roe Deer, but on three separate occasions we came across a young buck and using the van as a hide (they didn’t ’spook’ as quickly as I had expected) it was possible to get some good portrait shots of them. The short antlers, rarely bigger than 25 cm, are very distinctive and will be shed in the autumn.

I am hoping to get back sometime in October for rutting season.

You are always looking. If photography and the desire to respond to what’s around you is deep within, you never stop seeing. It’s also impossible to go anywhere without the means to photograph.

This break was never solely about image making, it was the ‘family holiday’ albeit without the kids who are all going their own way now, but I still always have a camera on my person.

If we’re cycling it will be the Canon, if walking the longer lens and the Canon. The weather we had, whilst great for the skies, was not so good for the birds. On the heather and gorse the wind was playing havoc and not much was venturing out. In fact on occasions we would walk a mile or so with nothing but the odd Meadow Pipit. Cuckoo’s were often seen, but never within range. Well that’s not strictly true. On West Anstey moor one alighted on the top of a small tree and I had just locked on when the predictable happened. It’s becoming a bit of a bogey bird and will be off soon so that’s one for next year!

But still some good opportunities arose. Pipits, Meadows very common and a very obliging  single Tree; Reed Bunting, Willow Warbler, Skylark, Whinchat, Stonechat and an aerial spat between a Buzzard and a Raven.

There are a few places where the sky dominates the landscape; the Lancashire mosses; the Somerset Levels; the Western Isles; some wide coastal estuaries and of course Norfolk. To this list I would add Exmoor.

We recently spent a week near Dulverton on the southern edge of the National Park.

Fortunately we didn’t have that ‘bland hot weather’ when the sky appears interminably blue and visibility is reduced by a heat haze. It may be what people want on a beach holiday and is the weather that is so often coveted by the forecasters as they reveal the ‘good news’ to a hopeful audience. We hit a period when a pulse of fronts gave changeable conditions and as a result some powerful skies. On the highest ridges Dartmoor opens up to the south and to the north wide expanses of the northern moors give a stage on which some of the finest skies act out their rapidly shifting moods.

Too often skies and the clouds that give so much animation to them are seen as an adjunct to the landscape. Ruskin was aware of this,

“It is a strange thing how little in general people know about the sky. It is the part of all creation in which nature has done more for the sake of pleasing man, more, for the sole and evident purpose of talking to him and teaching him, than in any other of her works, and it is just the part in which we least attend to her.”

Constable, surely Britain’s best cloud painter understood them more than most and he stated that you “see nothing till you understand it”. He saw them as ‘the chief organ of sentiment’ within his paintings and gave them there due accord in the part they played in his interpretation of rural England.

We’ve started feeding again down on the farm and have a new hide in a more open location.

The light is better here than in the pond hide and it’s easier to fashion a cleaner background. It will also be interesting to see what’s around at this part of the farm, being a good quarter of a mile from our first hide.

The juv Great-spotted Woodpecker was about today, with its striking red cap, which it will moult at the end of the summer. Both adults were also present along with the usual tits and finches. The wind gave some variation to the more common birds and at times they were struggling to gain a foothold on the twigs. Once on the feeders it was interesting to see them making use of their tail to grip on as they swayed in the wind.