A LITTLE boy's inquisitiveness helped his grandfather take a prize winning photograph for a national calendar competition.

The Northern Echo: Geoff Hill was a runner-up in the Countryfile photography contest with this picture.

Geoff Hill was walking his grandson, Reece Downs, around Hardwick Park near his home in Sedgefield, County Durham, last summer when something caught the toddler's attention.

As they strolled along a woodland path, the then three-year-old spotted a hole at the base of a tree and found a field mouse nest.

Mr Hill, 62, said: "A little mouse popped his head out and he was amazed, he wouldn't come away from the nest for ages.

Geoff Hill talks to Keith Taylor about getting what it took to get the right shot.

"That was last year and this year I returned to see the nest still there so set up my camera hoping to get a shot."

With his camera trained on the nest, Mr Hill hid behind a tree a few yards away and tempted the mother and five youngsters outside with peanuts and dandelions.

He said: "I was there virtually every night for weeks as they're nocturnal.

"I set up my camera on a tripod with a remote and about 9.30pm one night in June I saw them all sat there.

"They were quite complacent, I managed to get two shots."

One of the photographs, a family portrait he called Say Cheese, was a runner-up in BBC Countryfile's annual photography contest.

More than 61,000 amateur photographers entered the competition and the final 12 will feature in the Countryfile 2010 calendar, sold in aid of Children In Need.

Mr Hill, a retired builder, said: "I've enjoyed taking pictures, mainly of wildlife, for a lot of years and though I've been in camera clubs tend to do my own thing.

"This is the first national competition I've entered and done well in, I was so pleased to get to the final 12 and feature in the charity calendar for October is absolutely fantastic."