Every week we will be publishing readers’ (and staff) photos in this space. The best reader’s photo of the month will be published in the Viva Lewes Handbook, with a prize of £20. Please send your (hi res 300dpi or more) pics into alex@vivalewes.com, with a short description of when and why you took them. Viva Lewes reserve the right to use pictures in future editions of this magazine, or any other Viva Magazines Ltd product, unless otherwise arranged.

“I have been on a lens-buying spree,” announces Mike Ward-Sale, before qualifying that statement slightly: “well, only two actually. This week, it's the turn of the 100 mm macro to be focussed on our Lewes garden.” To start with here’s “A forget-me-not, which as they have already taken over the entire middle terrace area, would be an impossibility.”

Next up: “One of our Aquilegias.”

And finally, from Mike: “One day, I'm going grow up and be a strawberry.”

Russel Tuppen’s been using his macro function to focus on wilder species of plant: “I have been photographing some of the little Railway and Nature walk,” he tells us. “As you may be aware we have had a lot of rain recently and early one morning this image was captured with my macro lens attached; the raindrops really jumped out at me and the wet insect was a bonus!”

Here are some more insects, from Sue Fasquelle. “A pair of copulating cardinals,” to be precise.

A couple of pictures have come in from Lizzie Zyefert, one very different from the other. First up: “Columbine taken at the All Saints Centre. We are lucky to have a wide variety of plants and wildlife down there.”

And then: “The second one was taken at the barn dance in the Town Hall. I like how the focus (on my mum) captures the calm within the storm. It was a great night. I am looking forward to the summer dance at the Grange.” Keep them coming, Lizzie.

“Took this at the Paddock,” writes Sarah Burlumi.”It's such a great place and the light was fantastic that afternoon.”

“Beautiful Lewes,” she continues.

A number of our contributors went to The May Fayre, in the Priory. “Mo the potter gives a thumbs up to one of his young students,” writes John Hinitt.

Then… “Guess who won the 'stare you out'’ competition at the Southover Bonfire Society annual fayre at Priory Park on Saturday....”

“This was taken at the Birds of Prey stand at the Southover May Fayre,” writes Tony Gaitskell. “featuring the smallest owl I've ever seen. The image, to myself, are suggestive of such underlying thoughts as 'Yes?' or 'Do you have a problem?'” Or maybe ‘whoooo you looking at?’

Here’s another one from Tony: “Here’s a pair of May Fayre mascots parading in Cliffe high street, to the sound of furious drumming.”

Let’s go back to the birds of prey: Nick Robinson captured quite a few. “This is a Ural Owl (Strix uralensis),” he explains. “A very aggressive bird, it will chase other birds of prey from its territory, and will also attack human intruders.”

“This is a Perlin,” he continues. “The word perlin is a falconer's term for a hybrid between a peregrine falcon and a merlin.  It is bigger and faster than a merlin, but does not fly as far as a peregrine, and thus is less likely to fly far away and become lost. Usually the peregrine is the father and the merlin is the mother.”

“This is a Burrowing Owl (Athene cunicularia). These owls are found in North and South America. They nest and roost in burrows such as those excavated by prairie dogs.”

“Next was this Harris Hawk, (Parabuteo unicinctus) which breeds from the south western United States to Chile and central Argentina. These hawks are sometimes spotted in Western Europe, especially Britain, but are a popular species in falconry and are almost certainly all escapees from captivity. The Harris Hawk is notable for its unusual behaviour of hunting cooperatively in packs.”

Finally from Nick: “My fifth picture is of a Lanner Falcon (Falco biarmicus - Falco, Latin for a falcon  and biarmicus, Latin for 'being twice armed', in reference to the additional sharp points behind the bill-tip). The birds breed in Africa and southeast Europe, they usually hunt other birds by horizontal pursuit rather than swooping from a great height, like the Peregrine Falcon does.” In case you thought Nick had been spending too much time on Wiki: “Master Falconer Steven Charlton from Sussex Falconry helped me out with
all the bird info, his website is at www.sussexfalconry.co.uk.”

Ruth O’Keeffe has got an unconventional eye for accidental beauty. “I liked the way this plant on a windowsill was a silhouette on the net curtain,” she writes.

Last week Chris Winterflood wondered what this sign was all about. We’ve had a response, from Carolyn Morris. “You ask about Lewes Building Society: it was indeed the building that’s now NatWest on the  Friars Walk/High Street corner,” she writes. “Among its charms, small oval glass signs hung in the windows, with improving messages if read in sequence: ‘Thrift Intensified’ and ‘Savings Amplified’ is the pair I remember, if not  an injunction I've ever followed.” Carolyn has a declaration of provenance to make: she’s ‘down from Glasgow, 1969’.