These simply stunning, award-winning images are just some of those on display at an exhibition celebrating the best of British wildlife photography.

Moors Valley Country Park and Forest, near Ringwood, is once again hosting the highly-acclaimed British Wildlife Photography Awards (BWPA) exhibition, featuring the best of thousands of breathtaking photographs showing the beauty and diversity of our wildlife.

Among a host of striking images, this year’s category winners include a shag resting, a puffin in the jaws of an otter, a gannet breeding colony, Scottish woodland, and a telephone box being reclaimed by nature.

Locally, Hampshire-based Alex Mustard won two of the competition’s 16 categories with his images of blue sharks off the Cornish coast, while Wiltshirebased Nick Upton won the Documentary Series category with his collection of hazel dormice pictures from a survey day in Somerset. Unusually, central London was the location for Lee Acaster’s winning shot, of a Greylag Goose against a dramatic city skyline.

Mark Ward, editor-in-chief at the RSPB’s Nature’s Home magazine, and one of the eleven competition judges said: “The winning photograph shows a familiar bird in a familiar setting, but the visual impact is extraordinary. The stormy, brooding backdrop sets a dramatic scene, while the orange and pink from the bird bring vibrancy to the monochromatic cityscape.”

Wildlife photographer, TV presenter and naturalist Chris Packham, who lives in the New Forest, is a keen supported of BWPA and has also exhibited his images at Moors Valley.

“Every year the British Wildlife Photography Awards generates an incredible catalogue of splendid, exciting, imaginative and artistic images”, he said, “proving beyond doubt that we have the richest palette of life to celebrate in our own backyard.”

Moors Valley is one of a handful of locations to host this national touring exhibition.

Countryside Ranger, Katie Davies said: “We are really privileged to have this important national exhibition in east Dorset. The BWPA celebrate the best of British wildlife photography, across both professionals and amateurs and with so many stunning photographs on show the exhibition is proof that you don’t have to travel far from home to capture some amazing images.”

The British Wildlife Photography Awards exhibition is open daily in the Visitor Centre at Moors Valley Country Park until May 4. It is free to view. Parking charges apply. For more information go to www.moors-valley.co.uk or call the Rangers on 01425 470721. The 2015 British Wildlife Photography Awards is now open for entries.

Details can be found at www.bwpawards.org