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Caroline Lambert took this photo of the western scrub-jay in the Arastradero Preserve in Palo Alto, California. She was simply looking to photograph a bird, she says, any bird at all. She had her sights set on a song sparrow, but when this western scrub-jay landed on this picturesque-looking perch to the side of the trail, she quickly switched focus. The jay seemed to be looking for a place to bring its acorn, Lambert says, perhaps to eat or to store away for another time. First it looked to the right, then straight at Lambert, and then to the left before taking off. “The photo of the bird looking right was just ordinary; the one looking right at me looks really funny with the acorn filling its face. But this photo of it looking left seems to convey some of its sense of urgency in looking for a place to go,” Lambert says. “I think the experience is typical of bird photography: You just never know what you're going to find!”

This image was a Top 100 photo from the 2013 Լ����Ƶ Magazine Photography Awards. To see all of the photos, .