Not-the-Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Sponsored by Vienetta Enviornmental 

10 Years and Under

Fox in the road 

Mateusz Poliski , South London

Mateusz, 18 months old  was on a Mum ,Tums and Buggies speed walk through Beddington Park when they came across this Red Fox. Mateusz managed to get this fine shot, (while still moving) with absolutely no help from his mum using his new Nikon 500mm lens. The icy sharp image was achieved by balancing the camera, three times his own weight by using his massive baby head as ballast.

Nikon D4+ 500mm f4 lens+ 1.4 x teleconverter, 1/125 sec at f5.6: ISO 400, beanbag on the buggy and panning plate 

Creative Visions
Gulls
Giorgy Gorshkov, South London

Giorgy is an employee of Vienetta Environmental, a driver on the landfill site working daily in a blizzard of gulls. He achieved this shot by holding a compact camera out of the window and pushing the button. 

Simple, crisp and powerful.

Vivitar F128 Compact Digital Camera £24.99

The World in Our Hands

The Ironic Heron

Wis van den Heever, South London 

Wis was quick to see the irony of this Heron feeding on a Vienetta Environmental restoration lake.

The Gerald Durrell Award for Endangered Wildlife

The Last Tree Sprog

Terry Batnaghar, South London 

Terry, remembers Tree Sparrows well from his home country of India- a common urban bird. He was pleasantly surprised to discover that one of the largest populations of this species in the UK was present in South London at Vienetta's site Beddington Farmlands. He was keen to photograph this species  but when he visited the site he had to wait motionless for three weeks to get a single photo. It was no longer one of the largest populations in the UK.

Judge Hans Brandenburg Comments
The State of Nature report reveals that nearly 60% of the UK's biodiversity is in drastic decline but wildlife photography exhibitions are powerful tools at creating illusions of a sense of hope. Our simple mantra of take only photographs and leave nothing but footprints promotes a simple illusion of stewardship.  Once we've collected our award winning image, our footprints and subjects of our photos are bulldozed away by our Photography Competition Sponsor.
I am proud of the final selection of winning images- our legacy of a collection of digital images while nature and humanity drift towards oblivion...... and I get to be Chairman of a Prestigious Competition.

Conrad Drummer (CEO of Vienetta Enviornmental) Comments
Not-the-Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2013 competition is a great way for Vienetta Environmental to manage the negative response to our building of an Incinerator at the nature reserve that the above photos were taken. The incinerator will destroy 1.4 hectares of protected land , land that was designated for wet grassland- habitat for key targets species of our Conservation Management Plan.
Wriggling out of our environmental and social legal commitments and conditions that were set out in planning permissions is central to our Core Business Strategy. Inspired by the real Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition we leant that involving the environmental and social community in a photo competition, throwing an award ceremony and giving them a big bowl of chipolatas and a glass of Bucks Fizz is enough to appease them and also get permission from the governing authorities to default on our responsibilities.
Well done to all the participants and we look forward to next year's competition.

November Day

 Great Spot

 Goldfinches on Teasle

Leaf miners and fungi (above)- will try and id asap

 

Lots of birds on the farm today but couldn't find anything particularly rare. 1000+ Woodpigeon over this morning, 20+ Redwing, 3 Fieldfare, 15 Chaffinch, 70 Goldfinch, 50 Linnet, 20+ Meadow Pipit, 30+ Pied Wagtail, 5 Grey Wags, 1 Stonechat, 4 Skylark, 8 Reed Bunting, 10 Green Sandpiper, 200+ Teal, 2 Wigeon, 40+ Shoveler, 15 Gadwall and 1 Chiffchaff.

 Went looking for a few fungi along the edges while listening out in hope for a Yellow-browed (a much overdue species for us).

Went looking for a ghost bird at lunchtime (see below). 



Ghost bird Id

At a planning meeting the other night, the vicar asked me to see if I could identify a ghost bird that was singing in an old west indian couple's house in the village! 

Curiosity eventually got the better of me so I went to check it out. 

Beddington Farmlands Gateway

Quick Re-cap and update : Hackbridge is the village adjacent to Beddington Farmlands which will provide the main gateway to the nature reserve and the coreland of the Wandle Valley Regional Park. Planning applications to develop over 3000 new homes are advancing. The developments are 'sustainable developments' designed to compliment the gateway to the coreland of the Wandle Valley Regional Park and to develop the most sustainable suburb in London (and the UK) .

Development latest plans can be viewed at Hackbridge Primary School on Monday 4th November from 11am.

Plans will be on line from Monday: www.savills.co.uk/Felnex

STOP THE SOUTH LONDON INCINERATOR

The Beddington Farmlands ERF has been given approval by the local authority, the Mayor's Office and the Secretary of State despite the fact that all the local environmental and social groups were unsatisfied with the mitigation measures that were part of the application.
That represents a complete failure of local democracy and leaves only one last hope- a legal challenge on that decision.
Stop the South London Incinerator campaign are planning to lead that challenge and considering our negotiations with Viridor for adequate mitigation has failed we (I) have joined the STI campaign.

http://www.stoptheincinerator.co.uk/

Moth ticks

If I am not mistaken (which I could well be)- the above moths are (left to right) Red-lined Quaker, Beaded Chestnut, Brick and Angle Shades. The quaker and the brick will be new ones for me- taking my Beddington Farmlands pan species list to 990.
10 to hit my target of a grand.