Massimo Bottoni, 1st winner

The Italian photographer Massimo Bottoni took this photo of a hunting cattle egret at Lake Santa-Luca in Tuscany. "Hidden in my camouflage tent, I watched several cattle egrets flying very closely over the water surface, when suddenly one of them turned. I automatically started pressing the camera release, again and again. Fortunately, I was able to capture the moment when the egret fished the frog out of the water."

Konrad Funk, 2nd winner

Konrad Funk is a forest official and amphibians lover. Since four years, he regularly roams through the floodplains of the Rhine. "Preferably on sticky, thundery summer evenings", he adds, "This is the best time to take pictures of frogs. Having discovered this specimen bathing in duckweeds however was mere chance. You rather find tree frogs in the pondweeds or sunbathing on a branch, at least if you discover one at all!"

Jörn Meier, 3rd winner

Jörg Meier took this pictures on a sunny day of July, with a strong onshore wind blowing at the cliff line on the island Unst. Most puffins were feeding sand eels to their fledglings, while the bird on the photo had captured a large pipefish, which belongs to the family of Syngnathidae like the seahorse and feeds on small crabs.

Thomas Scheffel, 4th winner

Pasque Flower on a small hilltop in the Rhine-Hessian Switzerland. In early spring, the blue and purple blossoms of the pasque flower glow in the still grey winter landscape. Both its location on a steep slope and the backlight helped Thomas Scheffel to spectacularly highlight the hairy blossoms of this flower.

Dieter Mahlke, 5th winner

Sea eagles are the biggest birds of prey in Northern Europe. They mainly feed on fish and waterbirds. These two adults had landed on the ice to look for carrion. They are often surrounded by magpies, which hope to get a bite or two. The picture of these two unlike couples was taken in Brandenburg.

Harald Farkaschovsky, 6th winner

Harald Farkaschovsky took this picture of a misty moorland scene with browsing deer near Füssen in the Allgäu on an October morning shortly after sunrise.

Horst Jegen, 7th winner

Grass snakes are good swimmers and preferably live on the water's edge where they pursue frogs and fish prey. They are completely harmless for men and domestic animals such as dogs and cats.

Horst Jegen took this picture at his garden pond in Steinborn when he was looking for dragonflies.

Willi Rolfes, 8th winner

On occasion of his son's school graduation barbecue, Willi Rolfes found a small pond teeming with grove snails. He spent three days there couching for the perfect picture. "I wanted a beautiful reflection in the water", he told us. That meant being very patient. He ultimately got these two snail exemplars before his lens. After a short sniffing, the bigger one crawled across the small one.

Bruno Manunza, 9th winner

Bruno Manzuna lives on Sardinia. He regularly roams through the marshland near Oristano in the West of the island to take pictures. On this occasion, he was actually looking for egrets when he discovered the flooded grassland. The sky reflecting in the water and the protruding tips of grass added to this scenic composition.

Herbert Bachmeier, 10th winner

Whinchats are long distance migratory birds. From April to September, they stay in Central Europe to breed  and winter in Africa, south of the Sahara. Feeding on insects, they suffer badly from intensified agriculture.

Christof Wermter, 11th winner

Christof Wermert took this picture of a young lynx in the game reserve in the Münsterland. Like young cats, young lynxes are very playful. This one here romped with his two siblings for hours. In Europe, lynxes in the wild belong to the endangered species.

Holger Tange, 12th winner

Great crested grebes pursue their fish prey under water. This species was almost hunted to extinction in earlier times. Fortunately, the population has recovered, so that nowadays you can watch these colourful waterbirds at many waters. After their elaborate mating display, the couples build a swimming brooding nest for usually three to four eggs. The black-and-white striped young are sometimes carried on the adults' back. This picture was taken at Lake Leppin in Müritz National Park, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

Klaus Transier, Special Prize of the Jury

Klaus Transier took this picture of a great cormorant with magnificent plumage in the Luisenpark in Mannheim, where a colony of birds, unbothered by the numerous park visitors, has settled on an island in the Kutzerweiher. Unhurriedly, Klaus Transier took this photo of a colourful head of a cormorant completely filling the picture.

Bertram Lütke, Special Prize of the Jury

On his way through a vineyard near Eimeldingen in the utmost southwest of Germany, Bertram Lütke saw this wild tulip in the sunset light. When a fly landed on a protruding petal, the exceptional composition was perfect.