[Posted by Chuck Almdale]

Link to 2024 National Audubon Society winners.
The 125th anniversary of Audubon magazine, the 15th installment of this competition, 2,300 entrants and over 8,500 submissions.
As before: All winners are clear, sharp, well-framed, interesting, unusual views, unusual behaviors, unusual angles.

Local photographer Trish Oster strikes again at NAS, this time at #37 with four Peregrine Falcons. Trish, who occasionally joins us on our Malibu Lagoon bird walks, gave me some background information on her photo, on the birds themselves and some additional photos.

Trish writes:
This particular female (Maxine)  is around 10 years old now.  
She arrived quite a few years ago and killed the resident female. We do not know where she came from. 

[Her previous mate 02Z or “Tuzee”] disappeared last year while the 2 new chicks had just gotten old enough to fly around a little. He never returned and was determined to have died. There have also been reports that he was found dead and had been attacked and killed.

A new male (named Odin and thought to be around 3 years old) was finally accepted by her and they have three chicks this season. I went to visit the falcons this morning and as luck would have it, two of the three eyass walked up the cliff and it was the first time we got to see them out of the nest.

Maxine [now] looks very tired and not her usual self. 
I think she has had to teach Odin how to be a good father! LOL

The NAS website has the following photo information:

Category: Amateur
Location: San Pedro, California 
Camera: Canon EOS R6 with a Canon RF 100-500mm F/4.5-7.1 L IS USM lens;
1/3200 second at f/7.1; ISO 2000 
Behind the Shot: This past year, this Peregrine Falcon couple welcomed four eyases. The busy parents worked hard to keep the youngsters fed. The female in my photo was feeding one of the smaller eyases, which caused the two larger siblings, who had already had their share of the meal, to become agitated. One loudly begged, and the other sibling looked down with what seemed like an annoyed expression. I was handholding my camera, and the birds were moving quite erratically, so I used a higher shutter speed to obtain a sharp focus. The subtle colors of the ground cover, along with the muted background, gave the image a softer look and made the falcons stand out.  

The 2025 NAS contest winners will be announced in late September.