Fortunato Gatto's Image

Fortunato Gatto (Italy) takes advantage of the gentle dawn light to look down on a canopy of trees, bracken and bluebells.

Fortunato has been enjoying the spectacle at Carstramon Wood in the south-west corner of Scotland for the past 15 years.

To make the most of the gentle uniform light, his drone was in the air just before dawn as the bluebells showed a vibrant hue.

Each spring, woodland floors across much of the UK and Ireland are turned a rich, violet blue by carpets of bluebell flowers.

Bluebells are also found at the Atlantic edge of western Europe. Yet nowhere else has such dense numbers, and the UK is home to nearly half the world’s population.

Recently, British bluebells have faced competition from Spanish bluebells. These paler-coloured flowers have been grown as a garden plant since the 1680s. Now, at least one in six British broadleaved woodlands contains either the Spanish bluebell or hybrids of the two.