OF THOUSANDS of photographs captured in a celebration of the region’s wildlife, an image of a tiny gosling has stolen the show.

Matthew Smith’s snapshot of a Canada gosling was one of more than 1,600 entries submitted to be judged as part of this year’s North-East Wildlife Photography Competition.

A panel of judges whittled the submissions down to six winners in a range of categories with Mr Smith’s image emerging as the favourite following a public vote to find the wildlife portrait winner.

A spokesman for the competition said: “The winners of the fifth North East Wildlife Photography Competition were announced recently at the awards ceremony at the Great North Museum and, as with previous years, the panel of judges were left truly amazed.

“The competition, which attracted over 1,600 entries, is organised by Northumberland, Durham and Tees Valley Wildlife Trusts, the Natural History Society of Northumbria, Alan Hewitt Photography and the Great North Museum: Hancock, with Nestlé UK as the main sponsor.”

Insomnia that led to an early-morning walk along Saltburn’s coastline saw Pippa Maddison capture the image of gull in flight against a backdrop of cliffs to secure the wildlife in the landscape win.

And the overall winning image of a migrant hawker dragonfly, take by Marcus Kidd from Billingham, was chosen by broadcaster, writer and naturalist, David Lindo, who was a guest speaker at the event.

His image won the nature close-up category following Mr Kidd’s experiences of photographing grizzly bears in Canada and lions and rhinos in Africa.