Val Cunningham

“The blue jay flashed beneath the trees, gay and cocksure as ever, he had no cares or worries about his place in the wilderness picture. Whether or not he survived today, this moment he would tell the world what he thought, and challenge all comers, including the snow and cold.

Farmers were out harvesting in late October – and so were wild creatures. Scott Thiede sent a photo of a flock of crows feasting on sunflowers seed heads, just ahead of the combine. “Sunflower harvesting is a favorite pastime of birds, squirrels, field mice, and deer,” he noted.

This handsome osprey “caught breakfast on his third try,” said photographer Marguerite Eichelberger. Not bad, considering that osprey have been found to be successful in snatching a fish in about 25% of their tries.

A great horned owl landed in a tree near Deb Ranney, allowing her to take this excellent photo of a raptor and its prey, in this case an unlucky muskrat. It “seemed strange to see the owl out hunting around noon on a summer’s day,” she wrote. But maybe the owl’s behavior isn’t so hard to understand, if it had several fledglings somewhere nearby, noisily demanding a meal.

Anyone lucky enough to encounter a cecropia moth will doubtless never forget it. These huge moths, the largest in North America, stretch as wide as your stretched-out hand. And they’re spectacularly gorgeous: Just look at the one Gary Krause discovered resting on his backyard tree.

Sometimes a photo is just as captivating for what it doesn’t show as for what it does. Case in point: Scott Thiede is a very patient photographer, sitting in a blind out in a field for hours at a time to get unique views of the natural world.
His photo of a black bear doesn’t show the fact that Thiede had been in that same spot just a few minutes earlier.

Nature goes into overdrive as summer begins to draw to a close: spiders hunt relentlessly for prey, young animals practice vital life skills, the avian world prepares for migration.
Consider the scene in David Bendorf’s backyard, where dozens of ruby-throated hummingbirds battle for a sip of nectar, putting on weight for their long flight.