[Animals] Close-up of gull's eye in Shetland wins ecology photography prize

[AMAL]

A close-up of a gull's eye taken in Shetland has won the British Ecological Society's annual international photography competition. Rebecca Nason's overall winning shot captured a Kumlien's Gull with speckled markings - which she later realised were actually lice. The ecologist and photographer lives in Lerwick in the Northern Isles. She said her ecology and photography passions coming together to land the honour was "the icing on the cake". 'Hadn't travelled alone' She said she was "thrilled" to win, and explained: "In April I came across a scarce Kumlien's Gull as I fed bread to a growing number of Herring Gull sheltering from a Spring storm. "When the Kumlien's Gull approached to a good distance to allow for closer, full-frame shots, I started photographing the eye detail, noting a gorgeous granite-coloured iris with dark speckled plumage detail around the eye. "It was only when I got home I realised that the speckled patterns were in fact lice clustered around the eye - the Kumlien's Gull hadn't travelled alone.

Other winning subjects included a rare sighting of the so-called "fairy of the Valencian forests", a recently- discovered cave-dwelling bug in Spain.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-59054453