Just off Crosby beach there comes by a huge flying creature, dwarfing those giant windmills out at sea – a murmuration of starlings, flying as one living being.
Each individual bird must be ‘in the flow’, in the moment. The result is awe-inspiring.
Tag: Crosby
The ship channel
Crosby beach is a popular place to view the ships coming into Liverpool down the deep water channel in the Mersey estuary. The windmills provide an ideal backdrop, as the Antony Gormley statues look out.
A good place to rest awhile.
And as the sun goes down you can watch the ships queuing to come down the deep water channel into Liverpool.
Another favourite place
Antony Gormley’s installation ‘Another Place’ on Crosby Beach, Merseyside, continues to be a favourite place to visit. Identical statues of Gormley himself are placed across the beach and into the sea.
The weathered
The smooth
Who is this?
Some of the statues have become very weather worn; others are in relatively good condition – and they’re quite an attraction for visiting dogs.
Always, the statues look out to sea – the perennial search for what lies beyond…
Featured image shows the view from the beach
towards Birkenhead on the other side of the River Mersey.
Sefton sundown
I spotted this silhouetted curlew on the rocks, against the backdrop of this sundown picture at Crosby, Merseyside.
The sun is not yet low enough to produce the longer wavelength reds and yellows, but as we drove into Southport, a bit further up the coast, these colours had become quite magnificent, but for only a short while.
Quite a difference!
The metropolitan borough of Sefton extends from Bootle, on the edge of Liverpool, up the coast as far as Southport.
Another Place, Another Time
We arrive at Crosby Beach to see Antony Gormley’s Another Place once again. We happen to arrive at a super high tide, waves are splashing on the promenade and it has just started gently raining. Gormley’s men are mostly under water. Not much chance of photos in this greyness.
But then, from the west new weather appears with a ribbon of light on the horizon and over the Welsh mountains, which slowly broadens as the tide begins to recede, releasing Gormleys men from watery submersion.
The light highlights the mass of windmills in Liverpool Bay, evidence of mankind reaching forth to a more enlightened world beyond fossil fuels. So not too bad for photos after all.
Another Place
One of my favourite places to visit in the North West of England is Crosby Beach, home to Antony Gormley’s Another Place. The beach is studded with statues of a man looking out to sea, and the effect is remarkable.
The statues, beach, sea, skyline and offshore wind farms provide almost infinite possibilities for photography (not forgetting the starlings).
I rather like this one, at telephoto zoom, showing pooled water on the beach, with the windfarm in the background. In between is the deepwater channel where you occasionally see vessels making their way to/from Liverpool. The shadow on the horizon is the hills of North Wales.
The large sandy beach makes a good place to walk, but is not usually appropriate for traditional ‘bucket and spade’ activities as there is usually a fair wind.
And what’s this about wind farms being an eyesore? In the right place they can even add to the natural beauty of a location, which is not really something you can say about a nuclear power station. Yes I’m biased.
Starling
Starlings can sometimes appear rather dark, drab birds, but get them in the right light and they are quite stunning. Of course, photography is a lot about getting things in the right light.
This specimen was scrounging for crumbs as we ate sandwiches looking out over Crosby Beach and Antony Gormley’s Another Place. I believe this is a well known scrounging area for local starlings, they are always there.Read More »
