'You can wait thousands of hours for the perfect shot'

As a polar explorer, Conrad Dickinson has found himself face-to-face with arctic wolves and even got the chance to photograph polar bears, arctic foxes and other amazing wildlife.

Yet, he still loves to spend hours in the moorlands of his native North East and nearby Cumbria, patiently waiting to catch a glimpse of a hen harrier or a short-eared owl.

"Very often with bird photography, it involves hundreds if not thousands of hours sitting just waiting when nothing happens," says the 71-year-old from Hexham.

"Because there's lots of failed attempts, when you get that magic shot, it's a great feeling."

The North East is an excellent place to capture migratory birds along the coast, Dickinson says, as well as owls on the moorlands.

He says short-eared owls are one of the few species of owls that come out during the day, meaning they are easier to spot for non-experts.

"It depends on the vole population as to how many short-eared owls there are, and this year has been fantastic in Teesdale, Weardale, Northumberland, Cumbria - there's been quite a good number of short-eared owls."

Dickinson recently won a prize for his impressive shots of hen harriers, which can be seen at one of his favourite spots at RSPB Geltsdale, near Brampton, Cumbria.

"They're just such graceful fliers, hunting over the moors," Dickinson says.

As a RSPB volunteer, Dickinson has been monitoring hen harrier nests for 10 years and knows how and when best to capture them.

Using a long lens so not to disturb them, he says it is a thrill to catch them in all their majesty.

"The most magical thing that happens with the hen harriers is what's called a food pass," he explains.

The male goes hunting during nesting season and brings prey - generally a vole or small bird - back to the nest.

When the male returns, he drops the prey for the female who catches it mid-air.

"That's the real shot you want to try and get, but it's quite hard to capture," says Dickinson.

He was brought up in a rural farming community, the son of gamekeepers.

"I was always immersed in rural Northumberland and that worked hand in hand with wildlife and you just get to love wildlife and then the more you see, the more you want to see," he says.

The RSPB, which has called for greater protection of hen harriers, said the bird continued to be "illegally killed" in connection with land managed for driven grouse shooting.

Dickinson says they are "the most persecuted bird in England", but because of his background he thinks there is scope for collaboration to protect the birds.

"It's not all black and white, there's quite a bit of compromise. And it would be fantastic if both the sport shooting industry and the conservation industry can work in tandem, so that would be the ideal situation."

Hen harriers are fairly rare because of these challenges but they are not the most uncommon animal Dickinson has ever captured.

He specialised in arctic warfare when he was in the British Army, a task he says he found "quite easy", which led to a love of this unusual part of the world and an opportunity to work there.

He says: "You do some expeditions, then you do some more and then you do the hard ones and somebody invites you to be, I suppose, a polar guide and you get your qualifications and you take interesting people to cold places."

One memory that he says will stick with him forever was when he took two people from the North East to the remote Ellesmere Island, being followed by arctic wolves for three days.

"These wolves haven't seen people before so they're just curious and they come within 10 yards of you and it's a bit spooky at first, because they're big animals and they can be ferocious," he recalls.

He says the experience was "incredibly exciting" and a "real highlight", though the creature's curiosity "slightly wears you down after being there three days, three nights, following every movement".

Dickinson says he is as committed as ever to conservation and back on home turf he is the president of the Northumberland Wildlife Trust.

The charity is currently in the process of buying the Rothbury estate, a 3,800 hectare (15-sq-m) piece of land in Northumberland, where they plan to boost wildlife, restore bogs and promote nature-friendly farming on the site.

He says the organisation, which is close to raising the £30m it needs, is embedded in the territory and is committed to its preservation.

"We'll keep running it for the benefit of regenerative farming, we've got tenants that will remain and we'll also preserve it for the future for wildlife."

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