Bird shots score high in wildlife photo contest

Photos of birds dining – one on pine seeds, the other on grasshoppers – took the top two prizes in the annual wildlife photo contest sponsored by the Central Sierra Environmental Resource Center.

Jim Hoagland of Stockton won the $150 first prize in the contest, which is for creatures of the Central Valley and Sierra Nevada. He captured a Clark’s nutcracker pulling seeds from a Jeffrey pine, a common tree at middle elevations.

Frank Perez of Modesto received $100 for his second-place photo of a meadowlark at Knights Ferry with three grasshoppers in its beak. The $50 third prize went to Steve Brooks of Columbia for his shot of a sleeping fox.

Natalie Hawks of Sonora won the youth division, and $100, for her photo of a hermit thrush, another bird.

CSERC, based in Twain Harte, received more than 400 entries from 93 photographers. It uses some of the photos on its website, www.cserc.org, and in slide shows it does for school and other groups in the Valley and mountains.

This story was originally published March 10, 2016 at 5:54 PM with the headline "Bird shots score high in wildlife photo contest."