Award of Excellence
Joel Sartore National Geographic Magazine
"Waiting in a Waterfall"
First Place
Chris Pietsch The Register-Guard
"Alight!"
A gray jay swoops in for a landing amid the fir trees
on the snow-covered shores of Odell Lake as the sun rises over the Oregon
Cascades. Gray jays are able to survive winter at higher elevations because
of their unique habit of caching food in undersides of tree branches using a
sticky mucous secreted from the side of their beak.
