A YOUNG boy’s photo of a shield bug in his front garden was the winner of an annual wildlife photography competition.

Eight-year-old Roly Lewis, from Oxford, won in the children’s category of the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire & Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust (BBOWT) 2022 Photography Competition.

The North Hinksey Primary School pupil took a photo of a shield bug poking its head out of a flower in his own front garden.

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Oxford Mail: Roly Lewis Roly Lewis (Image: Roly Lewis)

Roly said: "I wanted to enter the competition so I took lots of wildlife pictures all spring and summer. I thought this photo was my best one because the blossom was a nice background and the shield bug had an amazing colour and pattern.

“This made me look closely at shield bugs which are really amazing.

"My mum told me I had won when I came out of school and I was so excited I jumped up and down. I really wanted to win but I thought there would be so many good photos that I wouldn't."

A shot of a buzzard in flight by Roy McDonald, from Berkhamstead, won the top adult prize.

Oxford Mail: Roy McDonaldRoy McDonald (Image: Roy McDonald)

The 45-year-old former courier driver said: "I had my encounter with a majestic buzzard on a cold and beautiful winter day.

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“I had seconds to react once I spotted it, and just as my focus locked on, it spotted me and flew directly across my path - so close to me.

“I chose the first image of the sequence because it had the most amount of action and sense of place: it is by far and away the best shot of a buzzard I have ever managed.

“They have eluded me for years. I'm quite stunned and delighted to have won."

Oxford Mail: Charlotte DayCharlotte Day (Image: Charlotte Day)

As overall winner, Mr McDonald won a top-of-the-range Panasonic Lumix digital camera and a wildlife photography masterclass, as well as receiving a printed canvas of his picture and having it appear in BBOWT's 2023 calendar.

A total of six winners were chosen alongside a runner-up in each category. All winners will have their photographs printed in the calendar.

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Winners:

  • Flora and fauna (and overall winner) - Ray McDonald (buzzard in flight) taken at College Lake
  • Runner Up - Adrianna Bielobradek (Poppy seedhead) taken at Buckleberry Common
  • People in Nature - Petra Mohr (girl on decking) taken at Weston Turville Reservoir
  • Runner Up - Lorraine Clarke (man in hide) taken at College Lake
  • Team Wilder - Helen Touchard-Paxton (frog)
  • Runner Up – Peter Massam (bug hotel)
  • Landscape – Charlotte Day (sunrise landscape) taken at Cholsey Marsh
  • Runner Up - John Kearns (Warburg trees) taken at Warburg
  • Teenagers – Zachery Osbourne (14) (Kingfisher)
  • Runner Up – Lucy Colston (17) (marbled white on scabious)
  • Children – Roly Lewis (8) (Shieldbug)
  • Runner up – Hayden Denham (7) (Hummingbird Hawkmoth)