I’m no wildlife photographer. For a start, it’s pretty thin on the ground here in west London and it isn’t one of my favourite photographic subjects.

But from time to time, birds make their way into a frame – and some are quite captivating. For me, it’s mostly the gulls along the Thames along with the odd cormorant with its wings outstretched, and the wild fowl that inhabit my home town of Maldon in Essex.

Of course I can’t forget the majestic swan bobbing along in the city parks and rivers where I find myself with camera in hand. In this set there is a gull looking out to sea in Redcliffe, a coastal suburb of Brisbane in Australia. It’s the one bird capture which had human essence…

Click on the first image to launch the full-size gallery