12-02-2025: Winners of the January 2025 Winter Wildlife Photo Competition at Kingston University

 

Breaking news: The winners of the January 2025 Winter Wildlife Photographic Competition 

Hi everyone, I hope you've all been well, I know I've been very quiet on the biodiversity blog for a while...in fact a whole year, as the last blog post was about the 2023/4 Winter Wildlife Competition Winner when I ran this competition over December 2023.

This year we ran the competition as planed one month (and 1 year) along throughout January 2025, challenging people to keep an eye out for the wildlife that they could spot on our sites in that time frame. 

Thank you to everyone who took part, we had a really good engagement this year, which means that I will be bringing the competition back in February 2026! - but more on that at the end :)

This year I had members of the local charity Citizen Zoo helping me judge the competition.

Elliot Newton the Director of Rewilding and co-founder of the charity helping me short list and then assign the first place winner, and Citizen Zoo’s Urban Rewilding Officer Digby Wheeler helping us judge our deadlock for second place. 

24 people took part this year, each entering up to 3 photos. Photos were judged independently this year unlike last years portfolio judging. 

We shortlisted the entries down to the following 8 images (isted in alphabetical order by photographer). Each of which caught our eyes through a combination of:

• the subject matter chosen,

• the play of the composition and colours or textures 

• combined with the clarity in each of the shots. 

Amaan Dastan

Emma Dreyer

Zoe Fordham

Melanie Stanton

Cristina Larusso

Paz Rojos

Joy Tilley

Aaron Wong

These were then short listed to the following 4 images by Zoe, Melanie, Paz and Anqi; which we had kept coming back to when we examined the photos further. In the end, while there was full agreement with who we assigned the first place to, there was a lot of debate over the second place, to the point we had to get in a third part to break the deadlock!

So with no further ado……

The first place in this year’s photo competition goes to this wonderful atmospheric portrait of Paloma the Pigeon from River House by Paz Rojos. 

We loved how this image has an almost photo journalistic feel to it, where Paz’s photographic choices draws you into a pigeon’s world and the people-made habitat of artificial cliff sides which support this species in urban areas. An urban setting which connects back to its other common name (one which originates from the natural habitats that it was known to frequent when first named in the western world), the Rock Dove. 

It was lovely to see such a striking portrait of a species which is often much maligned as evidenced by the sea of bird spiking and netting that we as humans put up everywhere.  

The hotly contested second place winning image goes to this study of winter seed heads backlit by sunlight at Tolworth Court Sports Ground by Mel Stanton. 

We loved how this image celebrates the intricate architecture of these plants in winter, using the rare winter sun to highlight these features.

Not only are they structurally beautiful, but by leaving these plants uncut, they provide seed forage for birds in the autumn and winter. With the crevice’s and stems highlighted in the plants, including the hollow stems which are often exposed after storms, and the denser tussocky grass bases; all playing an important role as refuges in the winter part of many insects life-cycle. 

Many congratulations to the two main winners, and a big thank you to everyone who entered, as it was wonderful to see the wildlife that you spot on our sites in January. 

I have uploaded everyone entries below in alphabetical order - see if you can spot the special category image which gets an honourable mention this year, which couldn't be judged in the same way as the other entries as it went head to head with last years Honorable mention entry from Kevin Hiscox (see last years blog for a quick refresh 😉 ) - comment below if you do. 

I hope this inspires others to take part next year, when I’ll be running this competition during the last of the Winter months in February 2026. And then I’ll switch to the Spring Wildlife Photo Competition in March 2027!

Gallery of entries:

Steve Avery

Angela Crowley

Deborah Charles

Amaan Dastan

Emma Dreyer

Robert Elves

Zoe Fordham

Anqi Gu

Jamie Golledge

Sarah Geard

Mike Hitt

Rhia Hedden

Ian Jennings

Hristina Kuseva

Mary Kelly

Cristina Lorusso

Tom Merson

Cheryl Reynolds

Paz Rojas

Melanie Stanton

Joy Tilley

Ricardo Vargas-Rios

Aaron Wong

I hope everyone enjoyed looking through all of the entries. 

And just as an advanced save the date!!!

Check out these save the dates for the next 10 years as we continue with the work to protect and enhance biodiversity. If we get to 30 years of actively protecting biodiversity at Kingston University –will we see greater biodiversity reflected in the images captured? (keeping all fingers and toes crossed). 

Upcoming planned Wildlife competition schedule for Kingston University Biodiversity for the rest of the seasons: 

February 2026 Winter Wildlife Photo Competition

March 2027 Spring Wildlife Photo Competition

April 2028 Spring Wildlife Photo Competition

May 2029 Spring Wildlife Photo Competition

June 2030 Summer Wildlife Photo Competition – (this competition will coincide with 25th year of actively protecting and working to enhance biodiversity at Kingston University 😊)

July 2031 Summer Wildlife Photo Competition

August 2032 Summer Wildlife Photo Competition

September 2033 Summer Wildlife Photo Competition

October 2034 Autumn Wildlife Photo Competition

November 2035 Autumn Wildlife Photo Competition – (this competition will coincide with 30th year of actively protecting and working to enhance biodiversity at Kingston University 😊)

Til next time :)