10 VIRGINIA FORESTS VIRGINIA FAUNA Second Place, Joshua Housman This beautiful, young red-tailed hawk was trampled by a deer, and thanks to the wonderful care provided by the staff of the Southwest Virginia Wildlife Center, it was able to recuperate in order to be released back into the wild. It was released at Devil’s Backbone Overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway. As soon as it was released, it landed in a tree directly in front of the overlook, giving all of its admirers a good, long look at its beautiful plumage before flying off into the distance. I find red-tailed hawks to be such interesting birds. They are one of the most common birds of prey found in the United States, occupying just about every type of open habitat on the continent, including desert, grasslands, roadsides, fields, parks, broken woodland, and tropical rainforest. They have an average wingspan of 3.4–4.8 ft. Although they are fairly large birds, they only weigh 1.5–3.5 lbs. They have a very strong, raspy call that sounds exactly like what you’d expect a large bird of prey to sound like. Their call is often used in place of bald eagle calls in movies and television shows to make the eagle sound more impressive. Their eyesight is about eight times better than that of humans, giving them the ability to spot a mouse from 100 ft. in the sky. While these birds of prey may be common, to see them is to witness the true beauty of nature. VIRGINIA FAUNA Third Place, Kyle Smith During a break by the water while hiking the Rose River Falls Trail in Shenandoah, my wife and I decided to look for salamanders. Rock by rock we worked our way down the river, and we did see a few. At one point my friend standing on the river bank, who has much better eyesight than I do, mentioned that we were getting a little too close to the snake, which we had not seen. I recognized that it was probably not a venomous species, but still, I didn’t want to disturb the snake as it was sunning itself. After backing away slowly until I got back on the bank, I reached for my camera and shot this photo. WINTER 2024 11 VIRGINIA FLORA Second Place, Kyle Smith Since I live in the city without a vehicle, I try to maximize my time when I have an opportunity to be out in nature. As an avid birdwatcher I decided to get up before dawn on the last morning of our trip to Luray and Shenandoah National Park, to see what I could see. After peering into the thick morning fog unsuccessfully for a while, I turned to see what, if anything, was in the trees in front of the house. There were no birds visible, but what I did see was this beautiful morning sunlight streaming through the trees and cattails. I didn’t see many birds that morning, but this ended up being my favorite photo from the trip. FOREST RECREATION First Place, Michael Kemp Two fisherman navigate the tranquility of a quiet lake as the sun casts its final hues across the sky, creating a stunning display of warm and cool tones at Lone Star Lakes, Suffolk, Va.
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