Coalisland photographer wins calendar competition

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A Coalisland man’s photo of a kingfisher bird has been featured in a new environmental calendar for 2012 after winning a photographic competition.

The photo, taken by Plunket Scullion, 53, represents the month of June in the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) 2012 calendar.

NIEA teamed up with Local Biodiversity Officers across Northern Ireland to select the best of a diverse range of photographs from the two categories – under and over 18s.

The winners were announced at a prize-giving event at Peatlands Park on December 17.

Renny McKeown, NIEA, said: “The photos that we selected give a taste of the amazing variety of wildlife Northern Ireland offers, and the enthusiasm and support that this wildlife inspires.

“We hope that people will use these calendars next year to remind them why it is so important to cherish and treasure our environment, making Northern Ireland a better place to live, work and invest.”

Laverne Bell, chairperson of the Local Biodiversity Officers’ Forum, said: “It was very difficult choosing the winning images from such high quality entries. In the end, we picked the 12 most inspiring images to feature in the calendar, one for each month.

“Amongst the winning entries was a close up of a fox, a fascinating mayfly and the rare, carnivorous plant, the sundew.”

The winners in the under 18 category were Ryan Hollinger, Esmee Murray, Adam McCready and Auveen Shannon.

The winners in the over 18 category were Vivienne Beck, Michael Martin, Plunkett Scullion, Nigel Snell, Robert Ashby, Danny Gibson, Trevor Moffett and John Martin.

All the winning images can be viewed on the NIEA Facebook page.