Photographs “Display the Magic of Avian Life”
Written by SurfWriter Girls Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel
It’s the eleventh year for the National Audubon Society’s Annual Photography Competition. In announcing the winners, the Society said the photographs were “spectacular, artistic and playful” and that they “display the magic of avian life.”
Including both amateur and professional photographers, there were more than 6,000 submissions from across the United States and Canada.
With so many North American birds at risk of extinction from climate change and other environmental hazards, the Society hopes that the contest draws attention to the different bird species and the need to protect them.
SurfWriter Girls Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel salute all the photographers who waited, watched, and clicked the shutter at just the right moment to showcase each bird.
Taking viewers into the birds’ domains and everyday lives, each photograph truly captures the wonder and magic of the birds.
Joanna Lentini won the Grand Prize with her underwater photograph of a Double-crested Cormorant diving beneath the sea.
It was taken in Los Islotes, Mexico. Lentini, who was in the Bay of La Paz observing “playful sea lions,” redirected her attention to the nearby cormorants. She says, “I watched in awe as the cormorants plunged beak first into the sea to snap at the sardines swimming by.”
Now, at a time when people are looking for something to cheer about, it’s uplifting to see these magnificent birds take flight.
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