Many thanks to all of you who sent in photos from your Naturetrek holidays for our 2019 Photography Competition. We have thoroughly enjoyed looking at them and are pleased to announce that Luke O'Brien's beautiful image of a Ground Pangolin is our ‘Image of the Year’ winner. Congratulations to Luke who wins our £100 first prize!

Many thanks to everyone who entered our 2019 Writing Competition. The writing was of an extremely high standard and we thoroughly enjoyed reading your articles about experiences on Naturetrek holidays.

Few places in Europe combine scenery, wildlife and geology quite so spectacularly as the Carnic Alps. A century of depopulation and abandonment has created unprecedented space for nature to thrive here, while the mountains’ dramatic rock formations bear record to hundreds of millions of years of natural and geological history.

Atlantic Puffins are one of those characterful birds that many people love to watch, and we are often asked which of our UK tours they can be seen on. Nicknamed ‘Sea Parrots’ or ‘Clowns of the Sea’ due to their colourful face markings, these small seabirds are only around 25cm (9.5 inches) high and the smallest of the four puffin species.

The Yellowstone and the Grand Teton National Parks comprise the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, a land of jagged peaks, deep canyons, thundering waterfalls, geothermal geysers and pools of spectral colours.