Four Queens

At the end of May it was the Bank Holiday weekend.This coincided with a visit to Liverpool of the three Cunard liners,Queen Victoria,Queen Mary 2 and Queen Elizabeth. This special event was to celebrate 175 years of the Cunard Shipping Line.I was keen to see these three magnificent liners so I joined the crowds of people on Crosby beach to witness the arrival in the Mersey estuary.Queen Mary 2 came out to welcome the two other queens and escort them to the Liver Building frontage in Liverpool where they performed a "dance" in front of the assembled crowds.A fly past by the red arrows concluded the performance and the Queen Mary 2 then left Liverpool to go on its travels leaving the other two queens in Liverpool.

None of this was visible from Crosby beach but the blue skies appeared to escort the Queen Mary 2 back out into the Irish Sea.I enjoyed the experience and some of my images from Crosby beach are shown above.The fourth queen I was to see was a few days later when Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth visited Lancashire to visit the City of Lancaster as part of her visit to the Duchy Of Lancaster.Later she visited Myerscough College Of Agriculture and I was able to see her on her way by road as she passed through the village of Bilsborrow.I was lucky choosing the right side of the road to stand and managed a few images as she passed by. All in all an excellent week with some memorable images. Hope you enjoy my images of the four queens and thanks for looking in.      

Swans and Cygnets

This last week I have visited the Lancaster Canal at Conder Green and Hest Bank.I returned to the area as on a previous walk I saw a number of swans with families.I haven't photographed swans and cygnets very much so decided it would be a nice subject for a blog post.The weather was still very cool and windy as it has been throughout May but some afternoons were bright and sunny and would be ideal for photography.

I had found four swan families with cygnets in various stages of development.The number of cygnets varied from two to nine in number.The mute swan is a bird we tend to take for granted but particularly at this time of the year it is a delight to observe and photograph these family groups of birds.Shown above are some of my better efforts at swan photography.I particularly like the ones of the male birds in full sail taking advantage of the strong winds to patrol their patch of the canal. Thanks for looking in and now that Summer has officially arrived maybe the weather will warm up a bit.As I write it is pouring with rain accompanied by gale force winds!!

Arctic Bound

This last week has seen me make a couple of visits to a favourite wader roost near Southport.I hadn't visited since March and obviously lots of birds present then had departed for the breeding grounds.Most of the knots had gone with only a couple of small groups present and there were only a very few godwits and grey plovers left.There were however still good numbers of sanderlings and dunlin with a scattering of ringed plovers.

For this post I have concentrated on the sanderlings.A large percentage of the birds were well advanced in obtaining their summer breeding plumage.It is always a delight to see the rich chesnut colours of the sanderlings after the very pale white colours of their winter plumage.The birds were intent on feeding and scurried about the beach in the usual clockwork mouse manner.They were not bothered by my close and careful approach and allowed me to take many images before they moved further away to follow the falling tide.

It had been a wonderful experience to be close to these wonderful little waders.Very soon now they will be heading north for their breeding grounds in Greenland and Siberia which I think is where most of our sanderlings are heading.I wish them well on their long journey and in a couple of months or so they will be heading south again to spend the winter months back on the Lancashire coastline. Thanks for looking in and hope you enjoy my images of these lovely little waders.

Time for a Chat

It has been a slow and cold Spring so far but most of the summer migrants have now arrived.Last week I returned to the Bowland Fells to catch up with a stonechat seen on my previous visit.The pair of stonechats had obviously nested close to the roadside and I was fortunate to be able to photograph the male bird returning with a small caterpillar for his brood.All the images were obtained without leaving the car and I was very pleased with the results.

The whinchat was photographed down on the coast near Cockerham.I had visited the area with Mike and we had gone in the hope of seeing the five dotterel found the previous day.The dotterel had flown before we arrived and none of the few dozen birders in the area refound them whilst we were there.It was nice though to see whinchats flitting about on the roadside posts.There were possibly two males and a female in the area and I managed one or two hurriedly taken shots as the birds were constantly disturbed by passing traffic.On arrival back home we discovered that the five dotterel had in fact returned mid afternoon. I understand that they left again in the evening on their long flight north to probably the Cairngorms.I hope to catch up with dotterel again next Spring.In the meantime hope you enjoy the whinchat and stonechat images shown above and thanks for looking in. 

Lakeside and Fells

This last week or so I have revisited my local nature reserve to see how the grebes are progressing and I have also made a trip into Bowland to see if any summer visitors have arrived.The grebes were still sitting on eggs and there was not a lot of activity during my stay.The little grebe gave one or two opportunities for the camera and it was nice to see a waterhen had been successful in rearing four young chicks.I have shown above some of the images from my visit.

I had not visited the Bowland Fells for some time and I was anxious to see what summer visitors were around.It was generally very quiet as I drove the back roads and lanes of Bowland.It was still quite cool and as yet there may not be much food available for the birds. However as I drove along I spotted a very nice male stonechat perched at the roadside on a dead stem of bracken. I hurriedly took some images from the car and then stopped to investigate .There was a pair of stonechats and they did seem to be on territory.The images I obtained were a bit grainy and I will return to the location later for hopefully some better images.On my way back I met up with Martin at Tower Lodge and we watched the pied flycatchers which also are nesting in the boxes provided in the adjacent woodland.I have shown an image of the female pied fly above.There did nor appear to be the usual numbers of lapwings,curlews and redshanks around but a very obliging curlew and lapwing did give me some nice images.Images of stonechat,pied flycatcher,lapwing and curlew are shown above.I will be back in Bowland soon when things warm up a bit.Thanks for looking in and enjoy the Bank Holiday weekend.