The winner from last month was kind enough to act as the February judge. Joanne Russo chose to focus on "food" as the theme. She looked at over 600 photo-observations and selected just five amazing images as February "Food" finalists. Take a close look at each one and vote for your favorite photo-observation. You can vote by replying to this post with the number of the photo-observation you like best.

1. http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/539629
2. http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/530602
3. http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/528805
4. http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/521811
5. http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/520661

February's theme was "food" and the observations were quite a banquet. Marv Elliot's shot of a Merlin standing on its prey and staring down the camera was the clear favorite by voters. Check out his amazing shot at http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/539629. And check out the map of Merlin sightings on iNaturalist Vermont (http://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/4672-Falco-columbarius/map#7.55/43.705/-72.450) and on Vermont eBird (http://tinyurl.com/mxdvagw). The Vermont Breeding Bird Atlas, a project of the Vermont Atlas of Life, found that Merlins expanded their range in Vermont drastically from the first atlas 30 years ago to the second atlas just recently finished (http://www.vtecostudies.org/vbba/accounts/MERL.html).

Are you interested in learning how to identify more birds? Want to join other birders on a field trip? Would you like to start adding your bird checklists to Vermont eBird but need some help getting started? One of the monthly Vermont eBird walks near you might just be the ticket. Check out the list of walks, upcoming dates and bird lists from past walks at http://ebird.org/content/vt/bird-walks//.