Bird Photograph of the Year - British Birds

There were 91 entries for this year’s com-petition, submitted by 31 photographers.Judgement day this year was Friday 4th

April, and the panel of five comprised: TimAppleton, best known nowadays as organiser ofthe British Birdwatching Fair at Rutland Water;Richard Chandler, Chairman of BB2000 Ltd andenthusiastic wader photographer (and, not least,our host for the day); Robin Chittenden, wildlifephotographer and partner in Birdline EastAnglia; David Hosking, wildlife photographerand representative of the Frank Lane PictureAgency; and David Tipling, wildlife photogra-pher. As usual, the judging process began with aquick run through of all the slides, to give thejudges a feel for the breadth and quality of theentries, followed by a longer, more criticalviewing. After much discussion and debate, themajority of the slides were eliminated to leave amouthwatering collection of 19 on our finalshortlist. Our attention was then diverted fromthe transparencies by a gorgeous lunch, pre-pared by Richard’s wife, Eunice, and consumedwith relish in brilliant sunshine in Richard’sback garden in Oundle, Northamptonshire.Happily for Richard, this provided a new‘garden’ bird, as three Common Buzzards Buteobuteo could be seen soaring above Kings Road!

Suitably refreshed, we returned to the task inhand. The slides in our shortlist were reviewedonce more, and ranked independently by eachjudge. No easy matter this, as they were all of thehighest quality. Nonetheless, the favourite wasstill an outright winner. The bare facts of ourdeliberations are given in the table opposite.

Chris Knight’s photograph of a Sky LarkAlauda arvensis is quite simply stunning. It wasthe clearest winner of this competition for anumber of years, with three of the five judgesnominating it their first choice and the othertwo as their second. It is perhaps fitting thatChris (who also won this competition back in1985) should win again following the publica-tion of his new book, The Feather and theFurrow: the bird photographs of Chris Knights,which contains many of his very best images.Chris was lucky indeed to get such a beautifullycrisp, large-sized image of a passerine in flight.He took it from a car while driving along one ofhis farm tracks in June 2002. He recalls seeingthree young Sky Larks beside their parents, andstopping to watch them. Two of the youngsterscame beside the car, at which point both adultswere flying round, very concerned. ‘I sat tightand they flew in close. I took a few pictures withthe lens fairly wide open, to allow a high shutterspeed (to freeze the bird in flight) and to cutout the background (that is, to blur out thebackground so that it did not confuse thesubject of the photograph).’ The prizes for thecompetition winner this year include aSprayway GORE-TEX jacket, and a selection ofbooks from leading natural history book pub-lishers HarperCollins and A&C Black, as well asan inscribed salver and a cash prize.

In second place was a delightful shot of aSong Thrush Turdus philomelos eating a sloe,taken by Mike Wilkes at Coughton, Warwick-shire, in November 2002. Mike commented thathe had been watching this regular site for some

318 © British Birds 96 • July 2003 • 318-326

Bird Photograph of the Year

Sponsored by:

The EricHosking

Charitable Trust


220. BIRD PHOTOGRAPH OF THE YEAR. Sky Lark Alauda arvensis, Norfolk, June 2002 (Canon EOS IV;Canon 500-mm f4 IS; 1/640, f7, Fuji Provia 100, rated at 200 ASA). Chris Knights

1st Sky Lark Alauda arvensis (plate 220) Chris Knights (Norfolk)

2nd Song Thrush Turdus philomelos (plate 221) Mike Wilkes (Worcestershire)

3rd= Great Grey Owl Strix nebulosa (plate 222) Gordon Langsbury (Berkshire)

3rd= Spotted Eagle Aquila clanga (plate 223) Jens Eriksen (Oman)

5th Chukar Partridge Alectoris chukar (plate 224) Peter Preece (Warwickshire)

6th White-tailed Eagles Haliaeetus albicilla (plate 225) Mike Gore (Surrey)

7th Corn Bunting Miliaria calandra (plate 226) Bill Baston (Suffolk)

8th Stock Dove Columba oenas (plate 227) Mike Wilkes (Worcestershire)

9th Black Stork Ciconia nigra (plate 228) Richard Brooks (Norfolk)

10th Atlantic Puffin Fratercula artica (plate 229) Steve Young (Liverpool)

11th Grey Heron Ardea cinerea Mike Lane (West Midlands)

12th Steppe Eagle Aquila nipalensis Jens Eriksen (Oman)

13th Common Tern Sterna hirundo Steve Young (Liverpool)

14th= Marsh Harrier Circus aeruginosus Richard Brooks (Norfolk)

14th= Barn Swallow Hirundo rustica Tony Hamblin (Warwickshire)

16th Dipper Cinclus cinclus Mike Lane (West Midlands)

17th Ruddy Duck Oxyura jamaicensis Tony Hamblin (Warwickshire)

18th Greenfinch Carduelis chloris Mike Wilkes (Worcestershire)

19th Bald Ibises Geronticus eremita Hanne Eriksen (Oman)

considerable time, and could scarcely believethe alacrity with which the thrushes swallowedthe sloes!

In equal third place came two very different,but equally special shots of birds of prey: aGreat Grey Owl Strix nebulosa by GordonLangsbury and a Spotted Eagle Aquila clanga byJens Eriksen. Gordon commented that ‘I wasphotographing this owl perched in a tree, whenit decided to fly. The owl flew right past me, andI panned the bird, hand-holding the lens.’ And avery good job he did indeed. The only slightlynegative aspect of the shot was the marginallyout-of-focus fencing in the background, whichdetracted from what potentially could havebeen a winning photograph. Jens took his shotin his adopted country of Oman, in November2002. He wrote that ‘On some days in bird pho-tography, everything comes together and at theend of the day you cannot wait to get the filmsback from processing… I have photographedmany Spotted Eagles, but the birds have alwayspassed overhead. This time, luck would have itthat I finally managed to get a shot of theupperside.’ He was also placed in twelfth posi-tion in our shortlist with a photograph of aSteppe Eagle A. nipalensis taken just half an

hour before the Spotted Eagle. No wonder hecouldn’t wait to get the films back!

In fifth place we have an absolutely crackingshot of a Chukar Partridge Alectoris chukartaken by Peter Preece. Peter commented that‘The difficulty in obtaining this picture was thatChukars, like our Red Grouse Lagopus lagopus,live in long grass or heather and you need thebird to perch on a rock or grassy stump to get aclear view. Although I had seen these birdsmany times before in Lesvos, I had nevermanaged to get a good photograph. Whilecoming round a dangerous bend on a steepmountain road, I spotted this bird and pho-tographed it from my car window at about 7.00pm. I had only about five minutes left beforethe light faded, and would not have been able tostay more than a few moments because ofwhere the car was parked!’

Sixth place this year was taken by the fabu-lous action shot of two White-tailed EaglesHaliaeetus albicilla grappling in flight, pho-tographed by Michael Gore in Hokkaido, Japan,in February 2002. According to Mike’s sup-porting notes, these two birds squabbled regu-

320 British Birds 96 • July 2003 • 318-326

221. SECOND. Song Thrush Turdus philomelos, Coughton,Warwickshire, November 2002 (Canon EOS 3;Canon 500-mm f4 with 1.4x extender; Fuji Sensia 100, rated at 250 ASA). Mike Wilkes

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222. THIRD EQUAL. Great Grey Owl Strix nebulosa, Finland, March 2002 (Nikon F5;Nikkor 80-400 mm VR lens; 1/400, f8, Fuji Sensia 100, rated at 200 ASA). Gordon Langsbury

223. THIRD EQUAL. Spotted Eagle Aquila clanga, Oman, November 2002 (Canon EOS IV;Canon EF 400-mm IS DO USM; 1/400, f4.5, Fujichrome Velvia 50). Jens Eriksen

224. FIFTH. Chukar Partridge Alectoris chukar, Lesvos, Greece, May 2002 (Canon EOS 5;Canon 100-400 mm with 1.4x extender; 1/125, f8, Fuji Sensia 100). Peter Preece

225. SIXTH.White-tailed Eagles Haliaeetus albicilla, Hokkaido, Japan, February 2002 (Canon EOS IV;Canon 500 mm IS f4, 1/750, Fuji Sensia 100). Mike Gore

226. SEVENTH. Corn Bunting Miliaria calandra, Lesvos, Greece, April 2002 (Canon EOS 1V;Canon 500-mm f4 IS with 2x converter ; 1/250, f8, Fuji Sensia 100). Bill Baston

227. EIGHTH. Stock Dove Columba oenas, Coughton,Warwickshire, February 2002 (Canon EOS 3;Canon 500-mm f4; Fuji Sensia 100, rated at 250 ASA). Mike Wilkes

228. NINTH. Black Stork Ciconia nigra, Lesvos, Greece, April 2002 (Nikon F100; Nikon 500-mm f4 AFS lens;1/400, f7.1, Fuji Sensia 100, rated at 125 ASA). Richard Brooks

larly over an area where several hundred Red-crowned Cranes Grus japonensis were feeding.The eagles were feeding on carrion and deadfish thrown out by the local people.

Seventh was a fine shot of a Corn BuntingMiliaria calandra taken by Bill Baston. Billdescribed ‘a proud Corn Bunting staking out itsterritory amid stiff competition in the ‘floodedsheep field’ near Skala Kalloni, Lesvos, singingboldly from its perch high up among the aspho-dels’. Bill also admits that he ‘broke the rules’with this shot, in that it was taken about 13.00hours, in the heat of the day and when the sunis high and the light harsh. Judicious manoeu-vring of his car enabled him to get the best pos-sible position under the circumstances,however, showing that you can break the rulesand still obtain a stunning photograph.

Eighth place was occupied by a beautiful por-trait of a Stock Dove Columba oenas taken byMike Wilkes in February 2002. ‘Several StockDoves were coming to a baited area of corn; thewater had frozen over on the small pool andthey looked rather nice standing on it waiting

their turn to feed.’ This picture was taken fromthe same winter hide at Coughton, Warwick-shire, as the Song Thrush photograph (plate221) awarded second place.

In ninth position this year we have a superbshot of a Black Stork Ciconia nigra captured byRichard Brooks, at his regular springtime venuein Lesvos. According to Richard’s notes, ‘thisfishing behaviour (using the wings as an“umbrella” to filter out unwanted sunlightwhilst picking off small fish) is behaviour I hadnever before been lucky enough to photographin such good light and with the bird so totallyunconcerned by the presence of my car, at suchclose range that I actually had to remove my1.4× converter to get all of it in!’

Tenth was an unusual but revealing shot bySteve Young of an Atlantic Puffin Fraterculaarctica emerging from its nesting burrow onSkomer, Pembrokeshire. Steve claimed ‘I wanteda different type of puffin picture, so by using a24-mm wide-angle lens I was able to show thebackground to the bird’s habitat. After a longwait lying on my stomach, the puffin finallyemerged into the daylight allowing three shotsto be taken before it flew back out to sea.’


229. TENTH. Atlantic Puffin Fratercula arctica, Skomer, Pembrokeshire, June 2002 (Nikon F5;Nikkor 24-mm lens; 1/250, f8, Fuji Sensia 100). Steve Young

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Last but by no means least, marking his sixthvictory in this category, David Norton’s winningentry in the Young Photographer category(plate 230) portrays Fulmars at their elegantbest – in flight. Fulmars nest on the walls ofLindisfarne Castle, Holy Island, Northumber-land and these birds were flying past on thewind, as the sun was getting low in the sky, withstormy clouds in the background. Every nowand then, some of the birds were unhappy withthe proximity of others and an aggressiveposture and call would be observed, as shownby the lower bird in the picture. David willreceive a cheque for £100 and an engraved glassgoblet presented by The Eric Hosking Chari-table Trust.

The prizes for the winner, second and thirdplaces, and the Young Photographer of the Year,will be presented at this year’s British Bird-watching Fair at Rutland Water, in August. Wewould like to take this opportunity to thank oursponsors, Sprayway, HarperCollins, A&C Blackand The Eric Hosking Charitable Trust, onceagain for their support, without which thiscompetition would not continue. Next year’scompetition will assess photographs takenduring 2003, and the rules will be announced inthe January 2004 issue of BB, and on ourwebsite (www.britishbirds.co.uk) before the end ofthe year; they will also be available from theaddress below.


Robin Chittenden, Tim Appleton, Richard Chandler, David Hosking and David Tiplingc/o British Birds, Chapel Cottage, Dunrossness, Shetland ZE2 9JH

230. The British Birds Young Bird Photographer of the Year. Fulmars Fulmarus glacialis, Holy Island,Northumberland, June 2002 (Canon EOS 3; 300-mm f4 IS & 1.4x extender;

1/250, f5.6, Fuji Sensia 100, rated at 200 ASA). David Norton

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Bird Photograph of the Year - British Birds