Local Nature Photography Competition 2019

For this year’s Science Week, we asked students and staff to showcase local nature in their photographs. We received an astonishing 169 entries from 43 students and six teachers. Entrants ranged from Nursery to Year 11, and I was able to identify 63 different species present in the photographs!

On this page I have organised the images by school year, doubling up some years where relatively fewer entries were received.

After each year group, I’ve put some facts about some of the nature featured in that year’s photographs.

Winners and runners up will be displayed in a separate post after they have been announced.

A note about Latin names

Where possible I have tried to identify species prominently featured in each photo and give both their common and Latin names. Biological Latin names consist of a Genus name, which is capitalised, followed by a species name which is written in lower case. Sometimes it is not possible to identify the exact species within a genus, in these cases I have given the genus name followed by “sp.”

Please note that I am only a very amateur naturalist, so was not able to identify everything and may have made errors! Let me know if you find any!

Nursery and Reception:

An artistic selection from our youngest students, featuring lots of light through tree branches.

Did you know?

• Pollarding, as shown on Eric’s willow tree, is a traditional method of pruning. Willows pollarded in this way were called “withies” and the resulting thin branches were used in thatching and basketmaking.
• Birch, like Emma’s lovely sunrise-illuminated example, produces a sap that is drinkable. In some places, people “tap” the sap, literally by hammering the tap into the side of the trunk, and ferment it to make birch wine.

Year 1

Year one’s entries feature some lovely record-photos of local species, including examples of the three most photographed species in the competition: Daffodils, red deer, and mute swans

Did you know?

• Staghorn sumac can be processed into a lemon-flavoured spice called sumac or somaq (Don’t try this by yourself though, the fruits contain hairs that can irritate your tummy!)
• We have many species of earthworm. The largest in the world lives in Australia and can grow to three metres long!
• Chinese camellia (Camellia sinensis) is the plant whose leaves give us tea! The closely related Japanese camellia (Camellia japonica shown here is not at all good to drink though.
• Bunny rabbits are not native to the UK, they were brought here by the Romans for food, as in fact were the large common brown snails that eat all the cabbages in my garden!
• The red deer is Britain’s largest wild land mammal. Can you find out what our largest sea mammal is?
• Woodlice are a type of animal called an isopod. They are not related to insects or millipedes, but are instead closer to shrimps and lobsters. Giant ones two feet long live in the deep sea!

Year 2

Year two sent in a plant-focused mix of landscapes and close-ups showing off some atmospheric wintry weather and some lovely textures.

Did you know?

• Hoar frosts happen when damp air touches very cold surfaces and changes straight from a gas to a solid. The crystals grow spiky as some faces of the ice crystals grow faster than others. This is the same process which makes snowflakes!
• Although lichen seem like plants, they are actually a community of algae and fungi working together. They grow very slowly; the patch shown in Eleanor’s photo is probably at least 30 years old.
• Some species of plant have both male and female individuals like most animals, whereas other species have both male and female parts on the same plant. The Cedar of Lebanon tree produces both male and female cones but at different times.
• Holly leaves are spiky and taste bad to most herbivores. The holly leaf-miner fly takes advantage of this by laying its eggs inside the leaves. The larva can munch on the soft flesh inside the hard outside and not worry about being accidentally eaten itself by a hungry deer or rabbit!

Year 3

Year 3 sent in a wide array of detailed nature record shots and intriguing landscapes.

Did you know?

• Fallow deer (Dama dama) are non-native and were brought to Britain by the Romans. However recent genetic analysis shows that none of the Roman deer survived and all of the modern fallow deer in Britain date from the 11th century.
• Tree rings, shown beautifully by Eloise, form due to the difference in growing conditions from season to season. Therefore they provide scientists with useful clues about the climate in the past. Scientists who study tree rings are called dendrochronologists and can use the unique patterns in tree rings to determine how old wooden objects are.
• Coots (Fulicula atra) are often confused with moorhens (Gallinula chloropus). To tell the difference, coots are a bit bigger, have white on their head (rather than red) and have plainer black bodies. Coots also have very odd feet: not fully webbed like a duck, but with each toe having its own separate webbing. This is an adaptation to their marshy habitat where the water is often too weedy for fully webbed feet to be useful for swimming.
• The honeybee (Apis mellifera) is a rare example of a domesticated insect. The only other one is the silkworm (Bombyx mori)

Year 4

I received a small but delightful range of entries from year 4 showing some fantastical fairytale flora.

Did you know?

• Eleanor was the only person to submit titles for her photos. Her whimsical titles add intrigue and fun to a set of photos showcasing strange and alien plant trunk forms. These were submitted printed out so what is shown below is a scan; the originals are of more vivid colour and contrast and feature in the display at school.
• Mute swans are not actually mute. Although they do not quack or squawk like other ducks and swans do. However, if they get frightened or angry they can make a nasty hiss.
• Many of the plants featured in Eleanor’s set are Rhododendron ponticum. This was imported from the Mediterranean as a garden plant but grows so well in cold climates that it is now a major pest in the mountains of Wales and Scotland. Around here, however, it is not a pest.

Years 5 and 6

Nine year five students submitted images, more than any other year group! Well done!

Only one year six student submitted images, so I’ve amalgamated them with the year fives here

Did you know?

• Oregon grape (Mahonia aquifolium) is not a grape, nor is it a holly (which its leaves often look like) The fruits are said to be edible, but so sour and bitter that they are disgusting. Young leaves open red like shown here but turn green over the summer. It is closely related to the barberry which has a much tastier sour fruit used in Persian cuisine.
• Daffodils (Narcissus) get their genus name from a Greek myth about a vain young demigod. Narcissus was rude to a wood nymph called Echo, who was in love with him. Following his rejection she faded away leaving only her voice repeating the last words said to her (hence our word “echo”.) The goddess of revenge, Nemesis, punished Narcissus by making him fall in love with his own reflection in a pool. Unable to look away from his own reflection, he died and turned into a flower.
• Almost parts of the yew tree (Taxus baccata) are extremely toxic, containing the heart poison taxine. Yew trees are associated with death, leading to many of the oldest trees in Britain being yews growing in churchyards. The wood of the yew is very flexible and was used to make mediaeval longbows.
• Sunsets and sunrises like behind Ollie’s trees are red/orange because blue light is scattered away by the atmosphere. This is why during the day the sky looks blue. Other planets with different atmospheres have different sky colours. On Mars the sky is often yellow, whereas on Mercury, with no atmosphere, the sky is black as night even during the day.

Year 7

Year seven submitted the most photographs in total, with thirty-one. They particularly displayed a talent for framing their images in interesting and striking ways.

Did you know?

• Lots of people believe that only male robins have the red chest. This is untrue. The male’s chest is brighter but it’s very hard to tell! Robins are highly territorial, if you see some together and they aren’t fighting, they’re probably family.
• English oak (Quercus robur) trees support more species of epiphytic (living on trees) plants and invertebrates than any other native species. A single oak tree can be the basis of a complex ecosystem.
• Tree holes provide habitats for all sorts of wildlife, including Philippe’s cheeky squirrel. There is some concern that the introduced ring-necked parakeets might out-compete native owls and woodpeckers for these holes but that doesn’t seem to be a problem yet.
• Antlers grow covered with a velvety layer of skin. When the antler is fully grown, this skin layer dies back and is rubbed off – very itchy for the deer. Rubbing this off may be how Savannah’s deer got grass stuck its antlers!

Year 8

Year eight excelled with the second most entries from the second largest number of entrants. The quality of the entries was impressive, even within a very impressive field. Year eight also submitted the most close-up photographs and the most photographs prominently featuring insects.

Did you know?

• In the UK, herring gulls like Cameron’s (with silver-gray on their wings) and lesser black-backed gulls (which have black on their wings) behave like two completely separate species. However as you go around the earth’s Arctic and northern temperate region, you find that they are actually just two extremes of a species complex, all of whom interbreed and which mostly have colouration somewhere between the two.
• Cameron’s butterfly might be a gatekeeper (Pyronia tithonus) or the closely related meadow brown (Maniola jurtina.) Their front wings are easy to tell apart as the gatekeeper has prominent orange patches whereas the meadow brown is mainly dull brown. However the back wings, like in this picture are very similar. I have chosen gatekeeper as more likely due to the double eye-spot, which is rare in meadow browns.
• Hope’s oak shows the classic growth pattern promoted by ancient forestry techniques. Oaks were encouraged to spread outwards by long, curved, lower branches. These were vital for making planks that formed the hulls of ships.
• Natasha’s ladybird is, whilst beautiful, a dangerous invader. The harlequin ladybird out-competes native ladybirds. It arrived in Britain by accident in 2004. Ladybirds are important for controlling aphid pests in crops. Harlequin ladybirds do eat aphids, but also eat the eggs of other ladybirds! Harlequins are also notable for swarming at their hibernacula (places where they hibernate) which are often inside human dwellings for warmth. At HCH, large numbers hibernate in the window panels.

Upper Years

Year nine submitted no valid entries. However excellent entries were received from years ten and eleven. Year ten were the first year to submit photos, and for almost two weeks they were the only year, leaving me worrying that this would be a year ten only competition!

Did you know?

• The names of male, female, and young deer vary from species to species. Kristina’s red deer are hinds if female, stags if male, and calves if young. Fallow deer, Bushy park’s other species, are does if female, bucks if male, and fawns if young.
• Britain used to have only two species of the heron family, grey herons and bitterns. Warming climate means that we now have seven, including little, cattle, and great white egrets, purple herons, and spoonbills, although most of these are still infrequent.
• Mistletoe is a rare example of a parasitic plant. The berries are so sticky that even after a mistle thrush has eaten them and they have gone all the way through, they keep enough stickiness to attach to a tree branch. The mistletoe then grows two short roots (often compared to vampire fangs) into the tree and steals water and nutrients whilst being held high up to get good sunlight for photosynthesis. Despite this, it doesn’t seem to cause damage to healthy trees though can further weaken sick ones.

Staff photos

I received thirteen staff photos in total. There appears to be a bit of competitiveness in the mathematics department because every time I got a new photo from Anja, Sam would send another entry!

Did you know?

• Daffodils have six-fold rotational symmetry. This is relatively uncommon in flowers as most flower symmetry is based on Fibonacci numbers such as 3, 5, and 8. However rotational symmetry of any type is almost unheard of in animals which usually only have mirror-plane symmetry. Exceptions are notable in echinoderms (Starfish and relatives) and cnidarians (jellyfish and kin.)
• Young buck fallow deer don’t yet grow the huge, plated antlers of older bucks. This doesn’t seem to have stopped the young fallow deer above from trying to fight the big boys, costing him the top of his left antler.
• The species name of the grey squirrel “carolinensis” is, despite her excellent photo, not in honour of Caroline Courcier, but from their native Carolina. Grey squirrels were brought to the UK from the Eastern USA. In many places they out-competed and replaced the native red squirrels. However, they also colonised very different habitats. Before grey squirrels invaded, red squirrels were shy animals of mature conifer woodland and wouldn’t have been found in the open parkland and suburban areas where we see grey squirrels today.
• The Egyptian goose is misnamed. It’s not a goose, it’s a shelduck (halfway between a duck and a goose), and it’s not really from Egypt, originating further south in the Nile valley in Sudan and Ethiopia. However the bird was sacred to the Ancient Egyptians and traded up the Nile and out of the port of Alexandria, which may have led to its name.