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

Geoff Hill was walking with his grandson, Reece Downs, in 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, Reece, then aged three, saw a hole at the base of a tree and found a fieldmouse nest.

Mr Hill, 62, said: “A little mouse popped his head out and Reece was amazed. He would not come away from the nest for ages.

“This year, I returned to see the nest still there, so set up my camera hoping to get a shot.”

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 because they are 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.”

His photograph was a runner-up in BBC Countryfile’s annual photography contest, and will be featured in the Countryfile 2010 calendar, in aid of Children In Need.