Defenders of Wildlife's Photo Contest

A family of Black Vultures (Coragyps atratus) waiting for a handout.

Defenders of Wildlife is having its annual photo contest.  Entries may be submitted for one more week (deadline is March 15, 2012).  One may only submit 6 photographs of wildlife or wild places.  I had a hard time deciding which 6 photographs I liked best this year.  I narrowed it down to about 100. . . and wasted many hours trying to decide before randomly choosing these 6.  I would love to win the Grand Prize this year -- a trip to Yellowstone National Park -- one of my favorite places.

ENTER YOUR PHOTOS AT THIS LINK
The vultures (above) have become spoiled and wait for me to throw out leftovers. . . they sit on a big dead tree at the end of the driveway. . .perhaps 60-feet up in what remains of the tree.  The power company chopped the top of the tree off to keep it from falling on nearby lines.  It provides a perfect perch for this family of scary-looking scavengers.

A Bison (Bison bison) standing in a sun snow shower near Mammoth Hot Springs
Terraces in Yellowstone National Park.

I have a lot of Bison photos from Yellowstone. . .but this is perhaps my favorite.  It reminds me of an age that is long gone.  There was snow falling and the sun was shining.  The Bison was maybe a mile from where I'd set up my camera.  Standing on a ridge looking very . . . American.

Click on this or any other image to enlarge

A pair of Southern Leopard Frogs (Lithobates sphenocephalus) in one of my ponds.

I can never get enough of these frogs.  They're somehow fascinating and comical to me. . .they're so odd looking.  They are being overtaken this year by bullfrogs (Rana catesbeiana) that somehow found their way into the ponds.

A Giant Leopard Moth (Hypercompe scibonia) with eggs on her foot.
I tried to rescue this moth from an approaching cold front but she did
not survive.  She was the first of her species that I had ever seen.

This moth is one of the most visited posts I've ever written.  There are a series of photos I posted of the moth over several days as I tried to rescue her from an approaching cold front.  She was the only one I'd ever seen until recently.  I have some new photos of one of her cousins that I recently rescued from the back porch of the lake house.

The original photos are here:  http://majikphil.blogspot.com/2009/02/giant-leopard-moth-2-hypercompe.html

Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus) feasting on carpenter ants in
one of the sand live oaks over my driveway.

I got so close to this woodpecker that I was able to make an amazingly clear image.  He was completely unfazed by my presence as he feasted on carpenter ants that were swarming on one of the oak trees over the driveway.

Stink Bug Sex
A pair of Stink Bugs (Euthyrhynchus floridanus) on Emporer's Candlesticks
(Senna alata) engaging in coitus. . . which goes on for days.

The bug sex photos are always my favorites. . . but judging from visits to the blog entry where I originally posted this image. . .they are not so popular with the general public.  I thought this was a really clear, crisp image on a nice sunny day.