I thought it was my car that had caught their attention as I rounded the corner, and maybe it had at first, but as I rolled down the window I heard it was another group of howling coyotes that had peaked their interest. I parked, turned the engine off, and frantically went to work with the camera... however, in the rush of that moment I was soon compelled to put my camera down and soak in the scene. I'm uncertain if it was the outlying yips and howls eerily filling the street, or the clammy late-spring chill that made my hair stand on end - I do remember that the air was so thick with pollen from the local orchards that it was like a mist swirling amongst the street lamps; it smelled wonderfully sweet and mingled well with the freshly cut field across the street. I cherish that impulse to put the work aside and focus on experiencing the moment. Sometimes when you slow it down and tune your senses in, you walk away with more than just a photo. / © Andrew Interisano/Urban Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Winning images: Urban Wildlife Photography Awards 2022

The winners of the first Urban Wildlife Photography Awards have been announced – with an amateur photographer taking first place.

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Tanya Jackson

Published: June 28, 2022 at 4:24 pm

An amateur photographer who works in digital advertising has won the inaugural Urban Wildlife Photography Awards for his image of two coyotes on a dimly-lit suburban street in Ontario.

London-based photography platform Picfair organised the free-to-enter competition, which pays homage to the wild creatures living in urban spaces, which proliferated during Covid lockdowns.

More than 6,000 photographers of all skill levels entered the competition from all over the world. Finalists photos featured animals that included pigeons, squirrels, foxes and lizards at home in cities from London to Melbourne.

Picfair’s head of content Philip Mowbray was joined by guest judges that included professional wildlife photographers Melissa Groo (USA), Andrew Budziak (CAN) and Will Burrard-Lucas (UK), plus writer and urban wildlife author Florence Wilkinson (UK).

Andrew Interisano, the overall winner, explained the story behind his image 'Date Night', which captured two coyotes on an urban street at night:

“I thought it was my car that had caught their attention as I rounded the corner, and maybe it had at first, but as I rolled down the window I heard it was another group of howling coyotes that had piqued their interest. I parked, turned the engine off, and frantically went to work with the camera… however, in the rush of that moment I was soon compelled to put my camera down and soak in the scene.”

The 'Nightlife' category was won by a photograph of a rat emerging from a city sewer in Mexico, while an image of a Flamingo taken on holiday in Italy by Hungarian Zoologist Mano Aliczki won the ‘Daylight’ category. The winner of the ‘Fancy Seeing You Here’ category, which was won by public vote on social media, went to an image of a raccoon in a ravine captured by photographer Jill Finney, who only took up her dream of becoming a wildlife photographer during lockdown.

A ground squirrel lays in the sun the San Francisco Bay and City in the background
Crows in an urban environment flying from an antenna to a public announcement system silhouetted against an electric blue sky
A pigeon perched on a red factory bulb during city wintertime
A red-billed duck looks directly at the camera with a lake and castle behind it
Four green rainbow lorakeets sit with their backs to the camera while one has leapt up and is flapping its wings in front of them.
Two colourful bee eaters sit perched on a barbed wire reinfoced fence with a Ryanair plane behind it in the background
A pink flamingo stands in the background feeding on salt water framed by a wooden frame in the foreground with earth banks either side of it
A red panda peeks out from a large drain pipe
An adult rat stands by a man hole in a nightlit Mexican street sniffing the air on its hind legs
Two coyotes in an urban street at night

View the full finalists and winners’ gallery on Picfair here
*All Picfair profits on print sales will go to global conservation non-profit Re:Wild

More photography competition galleries you may enjoy:

Tanya Jackson

Digital editor

Tanya Jackson is a digital editor and writer for countryfile.com. She lives in Wiltshire and loves campfire cooking, swimming in the sea, rural folklore, barn owls and walking her Welsh collie in the misty hills. Tanya also has a passion for English food and drink – although nothing tastes as good as tomato soup out of a thermos on a crisp woodland walk.
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