18th annual photo contest!

The deadline for this year's contest will arrive in two weeks: April 29. Have you sent your entries?

The contest offers five categories (amateur, backyard, digiscoping, flight and water birds), and each category offers first-, second- and third-place prizes including Kowa binoculars, Droll Yankees feeders, Nikon optics, Bushnell binoculars and Leupold & Stevens binoculars. The contest also offers a grand prize: a Canon EOS 20D digital SLR.

Last year, teenager Ben Sosniecki of Chanhassen, Minn., won the grand prize with his Great Gray Owl photo.

Details about the prizes as well as the rules and the entry form appear in the March/April and May/June issues. (They do not appear online.)

If you send an entry, please write the entry's category on the lower left-hand corner of the envelope. If you fail to do so, I won't open the entry. Thanks for your help!