British Ecological Society has announced the winners of its photography contest, “Capturing Ecology.” A gorgeous close-up of a Kumlien’s Gull’s eye has won this year’s contest, and you may notice that it has speckled markings that aren’t quite ordinary. It turns out that the gull wasn’t flying solo, and his guests around the eye brought Rebecca Nason the first prize.
Rebecca titled her photo Kumlien’s Gull & Friends. This gorgeous eye and the unique speckles around it make the photo stunning enough, but what are these little spots? Well, they’re actually lice.
“I started photographing the eye detail, noting a gorgeous granite colored iris with dark speckled plumage detail around the eye,” Rebecca explains. “It was only when I got home I realized that the speckled patterns were in fact lice clustered around the eye, the Kumlien’s Gull hadn’t traveled alone!”

© Rebecca Nason/British Ecological Society
For her unique image, Rebecca has been awarded the Overall Winner, but this contest brings us some more stunning photos. There’s a blood-red snail feeding on dead man’s fingers (the fungus, not actual fingers), and this is one of the photos that I also liked quite a lot. You’ll see plenty of unique and rare animals, plans, and moments from nature.

© Vijay Karthick/British Ecological Society; Dynamic Ecosystems winner
The contest recognizes winners in six categories, each also including Student photographers. There are also eight highly commended images and the winner among them, so we have even more to admire and enjoy. We bring you the rest of the winning and highly commended photos below, and you can also see them at BES’s virtual exhibition.

© Dani Davis/British Ecological Society; overall student winner

© Alicia Hayden/British Ecological Society, Up Close and Personal winner

© Jack Marcus Smith/British Ecological Society; Up Close and Personal student winner

© Dani Davis/British Ecological Society; Dynamic Ecosystems student winner

© Roberto Garcia Roa/British Ecological Society; Individuals and Populations winner

© Jack Marcus Smith/British Ecological Society; Individuals and Populations student winner

© Molly Dunn/British Ecological Society; People and Nature winner

© John Benjamin Owens/British Ecological Society; People and Nature student winner

© Pete Hudson/British Ecological Society; Ecology in Action winner

© Joshua Powell/British Ecological Society; Ecology in Action student winner

© Raul Costa-Pereira/British Ecological Society; The Art of Ecology winner

© Alicia Hayden/British Ecological Society; The Art of Ecology student winner
Runner-ups

© Roberto Garcia Roa/British Ecological Society; overall runner-up

© Doron Talmi/British Ecological Society

© Pichaya Lertvilai/British Ecological Society

© Alwin Hardenbol/British Ecological Society

© Merryn Thomas/British Ecological Society

© Jack Marcus Smith/British Ecological Society

Peter Hudson/British Ecological Society

Sam England/British Ecological Society

© Alwin Hardenbol/British Ecological Society
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