Also seen today were ring tailed hen harrier at Hempholme and a Marsh Harrier over D woods.
Finally I now have the results in for the permit photo contest for the 2012-13 permit design. As stated the picture had to be taken in 2011 and be submitted by e-mail or in person. We've had some belters this year and thanks to everyone who has sent in the photos which make the blog.
I made the selection of a short list based on the needs of the permit design - we need an image that can work on a credit card size and have the space to work in the cardholder details too. At this scale supreme image quality was not necessarily important. Given we had a kingfisher for 2011-12 we decided we would go for a change this year. The images I thought worked well in no particular order include John Coish's black-necked grebe avoiding a tufted duck:
Martin Standley's common tern in flight:
Mike Day's courting great spotted woodpeckers:
Andy Marshall's common tern in a close shave with a peregrine:
Perched barn owl by Roy Vincent:
Osprey by Alan Walkington:
And otter by Andy Marshall:
However we took all images anonymously to the department at Yorkshire Water and got them to vote for their favourite on nothing more than image merit. A close second was Tony McLean's excellent barn owl in the evening light:
But the worthy winner was... Alan Walkington's picture of a the long-tailed tit family which always brings a smile to anyone viewing it.
It is this image that will feature in the new permit design and Alan wins a year's membership to site - well done! - Again thanks to everyone who submitted and apologies we couldn't include them all.
We are running the same open contest for 2012 - however - to save me deliberating on which to inlcude; we will this time be asking for individuals to submit just one photo each in December. Remember images need to work on credit card size and feature space for names etc - pictures must have been taken in or around Tophill during 2012 - happy snapping...
