NWT Cley and Salthouse Marshes is honoured to be exhibiting the winning entries from the prestigious Bird Photographer of the Year (BPOTY) 2019 Competition, which will be on display from 10am - 5pm in the Simon Aspinall Wildlife Education Centre until 1 November.
The exhibition is touring just three locations in the UK, with NWT Cley and Salthouse Marshes serving as its final destination. A total of 31 dynamic images make up the impressive exhibition of international photographers’ work, with pictures taken at locations all over the globe.
This year, entries were judged from the following main categories: Best Portrait, Birds in the Environment, Attention to Detail, Bird Behaviour, Birds in Flight, Garden and Urban Birds and Creative Imagery. Both the winning and commended images from each of these are included in the BPOTY exhibition at Cley.
Overall Bird Photographer of the year 2019, and recipient of the £5,000 prize money, was Caron Steele. Their image of a Dalmation Pelican, skipping across a frozen Lake Kerkini in Greece, also won them a pair of Swarovski binoculars for taking the top spot in the Best Portrait category, alongside £50 from Nature Photographers Ltd with the same photograph for winning the People’s Choice category.
Ewan Carr, Cley Marshes Visitor Centre Manager, said: “It’s a pleasure to be able to welcome the Bird Photographer of the Year exhibition back to Cley this year. Being an international competition, the photographs offer a glimpse of birdlife all over the world. To be able to pair this experience with a visit to the nature reserve is very special, and we hope that it will inspire both new and regular visitors to look at wildlife in Norfolk in a fresh light.”
The Bird Photographer of the Year Exhibition is free to enter. The official book, containing more than 200 of the winning and shortlisted images and a foreword by Chris Packham, is also available for purchase in the Visitor Centre.
NWT Cley Marshes plays host to a diverse programme of art and photography exhibitions throughout the year