Birds in the Environment
Gold winner: Common Ostrich in Sossusvlei, Namibia, by Salvador Colvée, Spain.
“I was walking through the dunes of the Namib-Naukfluft National Park in Namibia, looking for oryx in its habitat when, in the distance, I saw this Common Ostrich isolated in a sea of dunes,” he says. “I was impressed by how far it was from a potential feeding or drinking area! I decided to take the picture of it in this harsh environment in such an isolated place.”
Silver winner: Ruddy Turnstones at Gijón Beach, in Spain, by Mario Suarez Porras, Spain.
“Many shorebirds regularly stop at Gijón Beach in Northern Spain during their migratory flight,” he writes. “They become accustomed to the daily bathers at the beach and are very confiding, letting you get near enough to photograph them closely. As the tide was coming in, I looked for a good place on the rocks and waited for the right wave to generate the spray I wanted. Among the splashes, it’s possible to see four kinds of shorebirds; mainly Turnstones, but also Purple Sandpipers, Sanderlings, and Dunlins.”