Fur-midable Hunter: The Ermine From Vernon - My Mom, Dad and I call this guy ‘The Ermine From Vernon Who Spoke German Named Herman.’ Yeah, we’re a little silly, but naming animals is part of the fun! We live on a mountain in Vernon, BC, and it’s like having National Geographic in our backyard every day. We spot ermines year-round, like this cutie peeking out from our driveway retaining wall. I had to wait for quite some time to capture him like this. Patience is definitely part of photographing nature. In winter, these creatures pull off the ultimate nature magic trick, turning from brown to snow-white to blend in! They weren’t so lucky this year as they had almost no snow to camouflage with! Fun fact: ermines (Mustela erminea) are super fast and can take down prey way bigger than you’d imagine, like rabbits! This ermine photo deserves to win because it captures a rare moment of nature in action. Ermines are quick and hard to spot. Winning would help me with better gear, so I can level up my skills and photograph even more amazing wildlife around me. Plus my Mom would be so happy to have her iPhone back because I take it all the time!

In High Park the hawk is on a tree branch, its sharp eyes scanning from the tree top. The hawk’s feathers are brown and white. The green leaves make the hawk stand out. Why This Photo Deserves to Win:This photo shows the nature’s beauty and detail of the hawk. The perfect position everyone was taking photos quietly. This is the hawk in its natural habitat. Identification: The hawk seems like a Red-tailed Hawk. I identified it by its reddish-brown tail. Red-tailed Hawks are common in North America and are known for their broad, rounded wings. Interesting Facts: * Red-tailed Hawks are one of the most widespread hawks in North America. * They have a loud, raspy scream * These hawks are incredibly adaptable.

After practicing for the other two photos with my mom's phone, she helped me set up her camera on a tripod in our yard. We set up a bird feeder and had our very first visitor, a chickadee! I used a long lens for taking the photo. I liked using the bigger camera because it had a bigger reach and better focus, but it was hard to hold it up but it was worth it. We had lots of fun taking photos and we liked that the chickadee landed in the trees. I like the black cap on the black capped chickadee and the black stripe on the back of it's neck. If I won the camera I would like to take more photos of the black capped chickadee and other species.

Bees are so tiny though they play important roles in our eco-system and agriculture by pollinating our crops and wild flowers, supporting other insects, birds and everything up the food chain. During my hiking trip I found a bumblebee on a flower as if it looks at me not moving so fast because of sudden temperature drop on that day. I saw many pollens covering the bee. Following the climate change, development of agriculture, and using pesticides, number of bumblebees in North America and other parts of the world has been declining rapidly. I would like to bring awareness in the community supporting bumblebees by growing gardens, creating and maintaining habitat for them. My photo deserves to win because pollens on the bee are so vivid and would catch viewers' attention in one look. I use zoom to show the micro pollens. The interesting thing is that while the photo was taken bumble bee is in very slow action despite the fact that their wings beat 130 or more times per second. Thanks to the colder temperature I took the photo successfully.

I love going on hike's with my family at your local conservation parks and love feeding the birds. This was the first time a bird landed on my hand and I got a picture of it! So excited to share this with you.

This image shows a majestic snowy owl perched on top of a roof. I recognized it was a snowy owl because of it's fluffy white feathers and bright yellow eyes. It reminded me of Hedwig from Harry Potter. Snowy owls are an extraordinary species that are capable of many things. Snowy owls have a wide wingspan and have incredible eyesight, which allows them to catch meals, such as mice, very easily.

In the pigeon photo there is a majestic white pigeon in the snow in the busy streets of Toronto. It is very often overlooked as a filthy animal, but they are actually very clever. I am familiar with these birds and can tell easily tell it’s a pigeon, I always try to be kind to them despite how others treat them.

For my photo for “Backyard Safari”, I’ve chose this photo of a snail that I took, taking its journey across ground. I was able to identify it as a snail due to its spiral shell. I think it’s an amazing photo because it depicts the snail crawling across the stone to continue its journey.

Peekaboo raccoon: I think it's special that I got a picture of a raccoon, because not very many people get to see one up close because they are nocturnal.

Pink moth found right on the side of my grandparents house. Looks like a rosy maple moth. Probably the prettiest moth we have ever found.

This is a photo of a Praying Mantis who spent the whole Thanksgiving weekend in our backyard. I named her Buddy, and she liked eating grasshoppers I caught for her in the park. This photo deserves to win because Buddy is so beautiful and was posing for a photo for a long time to let me capture fun moments spent together so I could share it with my family and friends and, of course, other Earth Rangers! I identified Praying Mantis by it’s specific long spiky legs that when she folds them she looks like she is praying.

During my nature walk, I spotted a bee-like insect called a syrphus. In this photo, you can see the insect with open wings inside a yellow daisy feeding on pollen. I think this photo deserves to win because in this close up you can see even the smallest details like the fur of the insect. I also admire the symmetry of this insects from the closest pattern on it's body. This photo captures the beauty of nature despite its small size and its ability to persevere to get food for itself even in this cold weather.

I was playing outside one day during the late summer and I noticed something small and shiny on the ground. I couldn’t believe my eyes! A small snail was crawling among the grass and leaves below my swing set. I didn’t even know snails like this, with beautiful swirly shells, were in Alberta! Some of the leaves had come off a nearby tree. So I placed them in front of the snail and it crawled on to them. I quickly grabbed my mom’s cell phone and snapped this photo before the snail disappeared. My mom and I went online and searched for what type of snails live in Alberta, and we found a great guide all about snails and how to identifying them in Canada. Right near the front of the book was my snail an Oxychilus draparnaudi! This photo of this tiny mollusk deserves to win because often this type of creatures go unnoticed when they are right below out feet. I’ve played on my swing set thousands of times and all along I never noticed the the beautiful things hidden in plain sight, like moss, mushrooms and insects scurrying around enjoying their lives. This small snail brought my attention to these things and hopefully this photo will bring the attention to what we may miss if we don’t take notice of what’s below our feet.

We found a frog and then we took a picture of it. It deserves to win because it’s very special to me. My favourite animals are frogs, salamanders, and snakes. Frogs have special powers. They can jump high and they’re fast! We were at our camp exploring when I took this picture. The frog is on the Earth Ranger Logo!

This is a popcorn - orb weaver spider. I think it will win because it is really big and interesting. It looks a lot like popcorn on of my favorite snacks. This spider lives outside my front door in British Columbia Canada.

For critter closeups i took this photo of a toad i found after it rained. It was just staring at me frightened but i took a quick photo a few steps back to make it more comfortable and thats the backstory to that photo.

I took this photo of a grasshopper to show my Mummy. She had a broken ankle and was on her first walk with a boot, after getting her cast off, so she couldn’t bend down to see it. I took the photo to show her and we noticed this grasshopper was missing part of its leg! Ironic with my Mummy’s broken leg. The grasshopper was still just as beautiful!

When I go for walks with my daddy he lets me use his camera to take pictures. With a little help I get to take some really cool pictures. I have pictures of ants and dragonflies and raindrops and so many other great things in nature

These are bees and I saw them at an apple farm. There were lots of sunflowers and they like to pollinate them. Bees are very cool for the environment. They pollinate the sunflowers and other plants too! Bees can also make honey and the honey can help your throat if you’re sick.

Critter closeup I picked a female zebra jumping spider. I took this photo in my backyard and at first it feels like there’s nothing out there but if you look a little bit closer you find a hidden world of small creatures.

The winter world’s picture is of ice crystals on a twig we saw on the ground in our yard. Ice crystals form very pretty shapes and I really like how pretty it is. It is one of my favourite winters pictures. Ice is cool.

I took this photo of a creek near Moraine Lake, Alberta on a family ski trip. I think it deserves to win because the creek and trees in winter is a unique view. I thought this picture would be a good entry for the category "water worlds" because the creek in the photo is the center of all the wildlife and vegetation in the habitat. It shows the beauty of water in its natural formation.

For my photo for “Water Worlds”, I’ve chosen this photo of dew drops on leaves. This is a leaf from a desirous tree that has fallen from its branches with the dew drops on it. I believe that this is a wonderful because it beautifully depicts and he many different drops of water resting on the leaf, showing the importance of water for the leaf, and for living things.

Frosty Leaves was taken in the early morning. I think it deserves to win because it has the perfect amount of frozen frost. It's a reminder that our world is beautiful and we should preserve it.

Have you ever wondered what Sylvan Lake Beach, Alberta looks like completely frozen over in the wintertime? Well, one thing is for sure, that it looks beautiful. The frozen boulders on the beach covered in shiny layers of ice are definitely a pretty sight to see. Also, the sunset was the frosting on the lake.... Oops! frosting on the cake!

This is my favourite photo. It is from a family trip to Nunavut, Mom and Dad and I went there to explore in the north of Canada. We went on a hike on day and saw this ice cave. We were hiking on the sea ice of the Arctic Ocean, that day it was -42C and we hiked from Iqaluit to Apex, Nunavut and back. It didn't feel that cold, only when you take off your mitts. We dressed in layers and the phone died because we took so many pictures and it was too cold! We saw this cave and it scared us at first because we saw a face. Do you see the face too? Mom and Dad checked it out, but it's not a real face, it's an ice face! I took a picture because it looks creepy, and it's all ice. There are big chunks and small snowflake ice crystals hanging from the top, that's why I think it's very pretty. The big chunks of ice make a creaking noise and we saw so many crystals form, ice on top of ice and snow - it was so cold. I also learned in that environment, if you get lost in the snow, you look at the snow drifts to find your direction. The snow drifts blow from north to south, so the peaks and ledges of the drifts are on the south side - knowing your direction can help you find where to go. If we got lost on the sea ice, we had to go north to get back to Iqaluit.

This is a small feather with dew drops on it that I did a close up on. I don't know what kind of bird it is from. But I think that it's a seagull feather, because I took it at the park close to my house and I see lots of seagulls there. It deserves to win because I took a lot of pictures and it took awhile to find a good one. But when I saw this one I was so happy with how it turned out.

This water world photo was taken on my way back from visiting the Yukon. I like how it makes you appreciate the smaller things around you.

These are the berries of the Black Mondo Grass after a rain. I love the way the beads of water magnify the ground cover in the background.

This is a close up photo of frozen water drops on an evergreen plant. Living in Ontario we experience cold weather for many months. What I like most about winter is playing in the snow and seeing the many ways water transforms itself.