Top Star Witness shots mean prizes for Shropshire photographers
Every day he takes his camera and spends hours monitoring a family of grebes, watching their every movement.
And the painstaking process has paid off for bird-watching photographer Paul Burgess after he picked up the Star Witness photo of the month prize for March.
Mr Burgess, 60, of Watergate Street in Ellesmere, scooped the £100 prize for his photo of a great crested grebe carrying a chick on its back.
He said: "I've been watching the family of grebes for a few years now and this is something they do a lot.
"When the eggs hatch they carry them on their backs for a while. There will usually be two older ones, and one will dive for fish whilst the other holds the chicks."
An avid photographer, Mr Burgess has been interested in birds for most of his life.
He said: "I've got thousands of photos of them – my computer is getting very slow as I have so many. But I've always liked watching them. I can spend all day sometimes just watching the families and taking photographs of them."
Mr Burgess said he's also taken pictures of a few rare birds in Shropshire.
"I saw a wheatear once in the winter, which had been blown off track to Africa. You usually only see them in the summer."
April's Star Witness competition saw a rainbow breaking through the clouds take first prize.
Winner Natasha Bridges, 39, of River Gardens in Shawbury, said: "My son, Oak, saw a rainbow appear so we watched it get brighter. Then, as if that wasn't good enough, this amazing cloud formation called mammatus clouds started to appear.
"I would love to take a photo of a really stormy scene with black storm clouds but bright lighting over the Wrekin, that would be great. I've been taking photos for about six years now, and I absolutely love it."
We'll be announcing the name of our Star Witness winner for May soon.
Check out the latest reader photos at www.shropshirestar.com/starwitness and send us YOUR photos in the upload box below
