The winners of the 2026 Photo Competition were announced at the Society’s evening meeting on Tuesday 24th March.

This year there were 51 photos entered by 10 photographers, in 5 categories:  Birds, Invertebrates, Other animals, Plants and Fungi, and Habitats. Voting was online: Round 1 selected the top 2 photos in each category, which were entered into Round 2, from which the overall winner was chosen.

The Winner of the Ron Arnold Shield was Julian Lambley’s photo ‘ Tawny mining bee fritillary’. Julian was also in third place with his photo ‘Winter Dawn’, while Justin Long’s photo ‘Golden mushroom was placed second.

As voting was very close, joint fourth place was also awarded, to Paul Lund’s photo ‘Digger wasp’ and Derek Taylor’s photo ‘Magpie inkcap’.