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Winners of BirdGuides photo awards announced10/02/2012 14:28:09More than 50,000 pictures to choose from
February 2012: BirdGuides has announced the winners of its hotly contested Photo of the Year competition. TOP OF THE SHOTS...Winter 2011 lacked the popular waxwing invasion of the previous winter, and consequently there was a change at the top of the ‘most popular species to photograph' charts. The pink punks were knocked into second place by the more enigmatic and entirely trickier-to-catch-up-with Short-eared Owl. Although the cold snowy winters of 2009/10 and 2010/11 may have seemed to be detrimental to wildlife, they provided perfect conditions for lemmings in northern Europe - the lying snow forms a surprisingly insulated blanket below which the rodents live through the winter months. The consequence of two winters with lying snow was two years of higher-than-average lemming survival rates; as a result, the 2011 breeding season was a productive period for many species of owl. Among other favourites were the common kingfisher, snow bunting, grey heron and great crested grebe. Almost 50,000 photos were uploaded to BirdGuides' galleries. Fifty two of these were selected as ‘Photo of the Week' and now a panel of distinguished judges from the fields of conservation and wildlife photography have chosen the best of the best. The overall winner has been named as Kevin Du Rose, with his image of a red-footed falcon. The judges - Julian Hughes, a warden at the RSPB's Conwy nature reserve, the BTO's Mike Toms and birding and photography expert Mike Atkinson - praised Kevin for turning a traditional ‘record' shot situation into photography magic. Says Mike Toms: ‘While this might be considered a "record" shot, the atmospheric feel created by the presence of the rainbow make for something more dramatic. As the falcon banks sharply, we are presented with the bird, wings and tail spread, turning towards us.' Kevin, who took the pictures on his Canon EOS-1D Mark II, said: ‘I was trying to obtain flight shots of this bird which chose to spend some time only 15 minutes from my home. I spent an evening dodging torrential showers trying to photograph the bird. ‘I weathered a really heavy downpour under a brolly, as the bird was about a mile from the nearest shelter. Following the downpour an intense rainbow appeared against the storm clouds. The bird became active hawking moths, eventually hunting in a position where I thought it might fly in front of the rainbow. ‘I watched the bird as it came in line with the rainbow; by a sheer stroke of luck it swooped towards an insect and as I picked it up in the camera viewfinder it banked round directly in front of the rainbow. I clicked the shutter and immediately reviewed the shot on the back of the camera. It looked sharp but this was only confirmed on arriving home and getting the shot up on my computer.' The runners up were:
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