Katie Barton, The second of eye contact (December theme: The Moment )

After an hour of observing and manoeuvring closer and closer to this majestic Australasian darter on the bank of a pond, it gazed directly at me, looked away and was content while I edged closer again. The second of eye contact between bird and man showed me that hope still remained for harmony.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.