Kingfisher photo competition winners announced

Run as part of British Waterways’ annual National Waterway Wildlife Survey, the competition challenged waterway visitors to capture the distinctive bird on film. No mean feat as kingfishers fly at speeds up to 40mph which means a flash of electric blue is all that many are lucky enough to glimpse.

Carlton Gater’s photograph was chosen above other entries because British Waterway’s judges, including ecologists, felt it captured the grace and stunning beauty of the kingfisher perfectly.

Now in its fourth year, the survey helps to track the biodiversity of the canals and rivers which are wildlife corridors, vital to helping sustain populations of a variety of both common and threatened species.

Carlton beat off stiff competition from other budding wildlife photographers around the UK and his efforts have been rewarded with a £100 prize.

In second place came Stewart Canham from Dorset who captured this image near the Dundas Aqueduct in 2006.

John Humphries took third place with this photo of a kingfisher near the village of Lyng on the outskirts of Norwich.

Judges awarded fourth place to Steve Ibbotson and this photograph taken on the Shropshire Union Canal near Ellesmere.

And fifth place was given to Paul Green for his photo of a kingfisher taken near Bradford on Avon in March 2007.

Waterscape.com would like to thank everyone who entered the kingfisher photo competition. We received a large number of entries and the standard of competition was very high.