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Inquisitive Jay Wins Young Photographer Contest
Photographer: Jesse Ritonen (Finland)
Photo Date: February 15, 2006
Last
January, on his 10th birthday, Jesse received what he had been wanting
since he was seven--an SLR digital camera. In February, his father took
him for a couple of days to a hide in Utti, Finland, to photograph
birds. Jesse has been interested in wildlife since he could first walk,
and so this was a very special trip for him. The weather was overcast,
but several jays, crows and two goshawks visited them. This jay came in
the early morning and perched on the snowy branch of a pine tree
opposite, staring directly into Jesse’s camera. ‘I was so excited,’
says Jesse, ‘to have such long eye-contact with a wild bird.’ Jesse was
the winner of BBC's Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year. He used a
Nikon D70 with Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 ED VR lens and 2x teleconverter; 1/320 sec at f5.6; tripod
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Mighty Chestnut
Photographer: Barry Merluzzo
Photo Date: July 13, 2006
For
centuries, the American Chestnut (Castanea dentata) was one of the most
dominant trees in the northern forest. Unfortunately, in the 1800s, a
new fungus was quietly introduced to the Northeast from imported
chestnut trees from Asia.The bark shattering blight infected trees
across the nation and by the 1950s; the trees were virtually wiped out.
Today chestnuts are being collected from the remaining trees and/or
sprouts in order to maintain genetic diversity for future research.
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