July's Photo of the Month

"Water Vole" by Steve Liptrot

Another month, another photo... an boy was I spoilt for choice for July's photo of the month!

The nicer wether has obviously brought a lot more of you photographers out to the Centre, and/or the abundance of new life with all our youngsters around at the moment. If you don't already, I encourage you all to have a look at one of our photo sharing sites (flickr being the most regularly used it seems) and you will get to see some great pics of our cubs, kits and fawns etc.

Of all these it was our new weasel, Neve, and our water voles that seemed to be most popular. Neve has really settled in well and has become a real star posing so beautifully in front of the camera. She has a real personality to her too which is great. But it was a photo of one of our young, but almost fully grown, water voles that caught my eye, taken by Steve Liptrot.

Steve has taken a stunning portrait of one of our most endearing mammals, captured beautifully in his habitat peeking out from the bank with the water as a backdrop. The almost pastel like shades of the grass and vivid colour of the voles fur complement each other perfectly, and the detail in eyes, fur and whiskers are amazing... talking of the whiskers... aren't they incredible! Well done Steve, a fantastic photo!

To see more of Steve's photos take a look at his flickrstream linked in his name above. It will be worth the look.