KEEN amateur photographers from Bromsgrove and Droitwich have been successful in a county-wide competition to find the best photographs of Worcestershire’s wildlife.

More than 250 photographs were submitted to the competition by 50 photographers from across the Midlands, with the winning images being chosen for Worcestershire Wildlife Trust’s calendar.

The trust runs the competition every year.

Communications manager Wendy Carter, said: “Yet again we’ve been overwhelmed by the quantity and quality of this year’s entries.

“Choosing the winners gets harder each year but this time we had help with an external judge for the first time. Jason Curtis, twice the overall winner of the competition, now runs nature photography workshops with the trust and agreed to help judge this year’s competition.”

The competition is open to anyone taking photographs around Worcestershire, and is designed to encourage people toget out and appreciate the countryside in the county.

Bromsgrove features on the June page of the calendar with a fox photographed by Greg Coyne, while Pete Walkden’s image of a magpie at Upton Warren Nature Reserve is on the July page.

The August page features a swallow photographed in Droitwich Spa by Julie Hunt, and the November page shows Barbara Lawton’s photograph of porcelain fungus in Piper’s Hill and Dodderhill Commons nature reserve.

Ms Carter added: “It’s fantastic to have so many entries – it just goes to show how important and inspiring our nature, wildlife and environment are to people.

“What’s even more exciting is that lots of the entries were taken in people’s gardens – showing just how important for wildlife these little patches we call our own are. We can all do something to help wildlife in our garden from feeding birds to planting nectar-rich plants.

“Even sharing photos online helps to raise the profile and diversity of wildlife in Worcestershire; we’ve got a really active group of photographers who contribute photos of wildlife to our Flickr group. And, of course, joining the trust will help us to achieve more for wildlife across our county.”

The calendars are £7 each, and are available to buy from worcswildlifetrust.co.uk, or at the trust’s offices at Lower Smite Farm, Hindlip, 01905 754919. All proceeds go toward the conservation of Worcestershire’s wildlife and wild places.