We’ve had a wonderful year ourselves sharing our 60th wedding Anniversary with family and friends in April, visiting the Isles of Scilly in May, and then being awarded Honorary B.Ed. degrees by the University of Gloucester at St Pauls College Chapel in September. As we approach the year end, I would like to share with you some of my best nature photographs in 2025. These have been taken in a wide range of habitats, using a new RF Canon Camera fitted with an 80-150mm, and 100-400mm telephoto lens.

The first image is of a Sandwich tern carrying an eel in its beak, returning to its nest site at Cemlyn Lagoon on Anglesey. This was taken using my new telephoto lens, and at first I thought the bird was carrying seaweed, only to see on closer inspection that it was a sizeable eel. The image of a great crested grebe was taken close to the bank at Ellesmere in Shropshire. It had no idea that I was observing it and I was able to take a group of images of it. There have been few swallows to photograph this year, so I was delighted to capture this shot of an early arrival in April. The image of the mute swan and cygnets was taken at Walk Mill, sadly the only breeding pair of mute swans we now have in the area. Six cygnets were born but only two survived, the others were lost through predation. A rare visitor to The Pit at Christleton was this male tufted duck, similarly rare, was the spoonbill at Burton Meres.

I was delighted to find the specimen of meadow rue, on a wildflower meadow at Wylfa on Anglesey. I’d only seen it twice before and that was the white variety, whilst walking in wild flower meadows in Tuscany. The common spotted orchid was the best specimen on Legion Meadow in Christleton this summer. It is just one of up to 150 similar orchids flowering in June on the meadow. The green flowering orchid was a single plant seen on Wirral, and the bee orchid on limestone terrain in North Wales. The Painted lady and peacock butterflies were feeding on a buddleia bush at Rowton. The painted lady was the first seen for maybe five years, as they are occasional migrants from Morocco in North Africa. The pink/purple variety buddleia bush is still the best plant to attract butterflies, and it seems that the more mature the bush is the better the butterflies are attracted to it.

The red squirrel was an image taken at Tresco on the Isles of Scilly. There is a large colony there, breeding well it seems on this island site, and visitors will find them easiest to see near the entrance to the Tropical Gardens.