Juvenile Great Horned Owl

This time around we are featuring several recent finalist photos while your webmaster goes on maternity leave. These shots will stay up July and August, our contest will resume starting September 1st so keep sending in those photographs.

The owl photo above was taken by Susan Hillyard at the Moonglow Dairy on the June birding trip out of the Slough. According to Susan, "The young owl was sitting on a limb over the path just looking down at us."

Equipment: Nikon D200 (digital), 200-500mm lens.

Susan is a passionate amateur photographer recently retired so now she has more time to spend satisfying her passion!

Mom and Pup

The photo above was taken by Jessican Riggin back in November of last year. According to Jessica, this photo was taken at Moss Landing Harbor, just hours after the pup was born.

Equipment: Canon Digital Rebel XTi

Jessica is a CSUMB student, semi-professional photographer

In full bloom

The photo above was taken by our very own Management Services Technician at the Reserve, Michelle Bakker. Michelle captured this shot with her Verizon LG cell phone back in early Spring.

Last, we feature a shot by Elise Ann Wormuth. She took this photo back in April. According to Elise, "This is a sea otter eating a delicious fat innkeeper worm. My husband and I were on a second-anniversary photo trip with Elkhorn Slough Safari, and we caught this guy as we came back into the harbor. The captain stopped and let us watch him diving down and coming up for a while, munching contentedly on the fat innkeeper worms he was finding on the bottom."

Equipment: Canon Rebel XT digital camera, Canon 100-400mm f4.5/5.6 L IS USM lens

Elise is a serious hobbyist. To see more of her photos visit http://flickr.com/photos/mythlady/.