Close encounters at the top of the lake

Windermere, Lake District There's a bullfinch aboard the steamer, and intriguing creatures in the water

The moment my hands catch the bird so I can free it from the ship's capacious saloon, I become dizzy. As the Windermere steamer Swan reverses out from the pier at Bowness and manoeuvres around it feels to me as though it's the lake dotted with sailing craft and leafy islands that is pirouetting, not the boat itself.

The moment passes. My diminutive charge's heart pumps in sync with the beat of the engines reverberating below decks. The steamer heads down England's longest lake towards Lakeside near its southern end.