A STARTLING photograph of a young osprey rising from a loch has been named the overall winner of the Scottish Nature Awards 2016.
Gordon Rae, from Lockerbie, in Dumfries and Galloway, dubbed the image Undercover Osprey as he thought it looked as though the bird was in stealth mode.
The photographer snapped the raptor at Rothiemurchus, near Aviemore, in the Cairngorms.
Mr Rae said: “My winning image came by chance one morning when the light was in my favour really early on.
“This juvenile bird returning to the Highlands for the first time was having a real problem lifting clear of the water with such a huge fish and had sat back down to regain his composure.
“I had taken images in the past almost like this but never just quite right, so to find this one in the camera, well you can just imagine the smile on my face.”
Judge Richard Shucksmith said: “For me, there are so many images of ospreys catching fish that it was great to see a different take on a subject that is photographed so much.
“The powerful arched wings, the detail in the feathers, the beautiful light and most of all seeing the bright yellow eye just above the front wing, draws my eye to the osprey’s eye.”
Other winners include Jeanette Stafford’s Frost Feathers, which won the Natural Abstract category, and Kerstin Gruenling’ image of Glasgow’s Red Road flats reflected in a pool, which won the Urban Greenspace category.
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