Congratulations to our second place winner in the BirdSpotter Grand Prize drawing: Linda Petersen of Terril, Iowa! Linda's photo of a Baltimore Oriole stole the hearts of many. Thanks to our sponsor, Wild Birds Unlimited! To see our winning photos from this season, visit http://bit.ly/BirdSpotter2017-18.

Look closely and you'll see a tiny, perfect snowflake in this Black-capped Chickadee's beak! This cool photo was submitted to the last BirdSpotter category by Kittie Wilson, of New London, NH. Monday is here and you have only four more days to vote for your favorite photo in our Grand Prize contest! Winner will get a big prize pack from Wild Birds Unlimited! Visit @http://bit.ly/BirdSpotter2017-18 to view past category winners and vote!

Check out this great shot! Congratulations to the People's Choice winner, Dee Elliot of Mineral Wells, TX, in our final category "Eyewitness." Dee says she saw this juvenile Scissor-tailed Flycatcher on a fence. As she was taking photos, the grasshopper flew by and met its untimely end. She wins a prize pack from Wild Birds Unlimited. Check out our other winners @http://bit.ly/BirdSpotter2017-18

For anyone who missed our post about the extremely rare yellow-pigmented Northern cardinal photographed by Jeremy Black in Alabaster, Alabama, here's a second shot that Jeremy just shared with us after going out to find the bird again. We're highlighting it as the opening photo in today's sampling of the beautiful and interesting nature shots you've been sharing with us from across North America and around the planet. What's happening in nature near you right now?

These photos were taken in two countries and 14 U.S. states by Jeremy Black (Alabama), Walt Cochran (Kansas), Dick Rowe (Cayman Islands), Nancy Camden (Wisconsin), Jay Spring (California), Jocelyn Anderson (Michigan), Robin Zimmerman (South Carolina), Peter Pereira (Colorado), Lisa Grindeland (Wyoming), Susan Landis (Florida), Rob Swanson (Vermont), Kelly Sparks (North Carolina), Noelle Jorge (California), Kathy Kloosterman (Iowa), Alyssa Davis (Illinois), Lynn Berning Ledbetter (Kansas), Ted E. Johnson Jr. (Florida), Karen Winslow Sheehan (New Jersey), Lin Andersen (Texas) and Bonnie Williams Anderson (Florida). Thanks to all.

(If you enjoy our posts and would like to see them regularly, a good way is to "like" our page and then click on the little arrow in the upper right of your own page, choose "News Feed Preferences" from the menu, hit "Prioritize Who to See First" and click on The Naturalist's Notebook. You also can visit our Facebook page and see every post. We're thrilled that so many thousands of you are interested in nature and science. Feel free to spread...

Mountain Bluebird (Sialia currucoides) by B. Benson.

Patricia Bonner had an extraordinary encounter in Zion National Park in Utah with one of the world's 450 or so surviving California condors. “I was hiking in Zion on the Angels Landing Trail and was nearly to the finish," she writes in sharing her photo of this critically endangered, highly intelligent scavenger. "It was early morning. The bird was doing its morning wash-up. He stayed in place for about twenty minutes and I did too! The bird, the view and the hike were amazing.”

California condors once soared over much of North America with their nearly 10-foot wingspans, but because of widespread poaching, habitat loss and lead poisoning—from eating animals shot with lead bullets by hunters—went extinct in the wild in 1987. Thanks to a captive breeding program, they have been re-introduced in a few places in the West. About 70 live in Utah and Arizona and they are both curious about humans and known for perching on cliffs, which helps explain Patricia's long and close-up condor-watching session. Have you ever been fortunate enough to see a California condor? Thank you for sharing your photo and story, Patricia.

(If you enjoy our Facebook posts and want to see more, please take a few seconds to "like" our page. You can find it by clicking on "The Naturalist's Notebook" above. We're excited that so many of you are tuned in to nature and science. Thank you—and feel free to pass the word to others!...

"It's migration season for Snowy Owls," writes Beth Finney from western Massachusetts in sharing two of these beautiful photos sent to us in recent weeks from owl-watchers in four U.S. states. The fall migration of snowy owls differs from year to year both in how far south the birds go and how many of the owls leave their far northern nesting grounds. The variation depends on the availability and location of prey (mostly rodents but also some birds). Have you seen or photographed a snowy owl? Let us know. Many thanks to Beth and also to Joe Gliozzo (who took the opening photos in New Jersey), Donna McKnight (New Jersey), Victor Hiltz (Michigan) and John Radloff (Wisconsin) for their shots.

(If you enjoy our Facebook posts and want to see more, please take a few seconds to "like" our page. You can find it by clicking on "The Naturalist's Notebook" above. We're excited that so many of you are tuned in to nature and science. Thank you—and feel free to pass the word to others! Our website is thenaturalistsnotebook.com.)

Photo of vermilion flycatcher by Jay Spring in Irvine, California

Masked Cardinals (Paroaria nigrogenis) by Amilcar Lusinchi. This cardinal is found in Trinidad, north-eastern Colombia and northern Venezuela.