ASKHAM Bog nature reserve just outside York is a great place to get away from it all: an oasis of meadows and ponds famed for birds, butterflies, dragonflies and other wildlife.

A series of wooden boardwalks lead to different parts of the bog: taking you right into the heart of beautiful fen meadows dotted, at various times of the year, with orchids, yellow flag iris, marsh valerian, and reeds and sedges.

It is a great place to go nature watching. But however long you spend there, you would be lucky indeed to see anything as striking as the water vole breakfasting on berries which is pictured here.

There are water voles aplenty at Askham Bog, but spotting them is a different matter.

Local photographer Simon Roy, who took this photograph at the reserve, admits getting it was anything but simple.

“I had observed a water vole attempting to reach overhanging brambles from the edge of a small pond,” says Simon, a 35-year-old married father of two from Long Marston, near York. “I created a natural-looking island using a moss-covered rock and positioned it so that a vole could use it to get to the fruit. I then spent many hours lying in the mud waiting for one to try.”

The photograph won Simon third place in the ‘Wildlife Havens’ section of the International Garden Photographer of the Year competition, and now features in an exhibition at Kew Gardens.

Another of Simon’s photographs, Autumn Coal Tit, was commended in the same competition. It was taken in the photographer’s back garden, where he had just begun to build a hide.

“This inquisitive coal tit landed on rusty nails at the top of an old post. The bird was perched brilliantly with one foot on each nail and I knew it would make a lovely photograph,” Simon says.

The International Garden Photographer of the Year competition is open to professional and amateur photographers alike, from all over the world. Simon, who wants to establish himself as a professional photographer, hopes his success will get his new career off to a great start.

After nine years as a graphic designer, he was made redundant in 2010. He has always loved wildlife, however, and having studied art and design at university, decided to set up as a professional photographer. His aim is to specialise in nature photography – although his style also lends itself to landscape, portrait and still-life work, he says.

To see more, visit his website siphoto.co.uk