2013 - Distinguished Print Award & Judges Choice, Professional Photographers of America, New Mexico

This photograph was taken in California at the Palo Alto Baylands Nature Preserve on November 11, 2012. This 1,940 acre reserve is one of the largest tacks of undisturbed marshland remaining in San Francisco Bay, and serves as a gathering place for over 150 species of birds.

Early morning on November 11th, a slowly changing mix of Black-Necked Stilts, American Avocets, Snowy Egrets, American White Pelicans and other birds swim the waters of Adobe Creek. Suddenly this quiet scene is interrupted by screeching and screaming as a muddy gull flies into the creek from the north, scattering birds to both sides… and so arrives the “Party Crasher”!