Photo: Greater Prairie Chickens, Amiel Hopkins
Tom Blackburn
Dawn had not yet broken, but in his freezing cold bird blind Amiel Hopkins was awoken by the “booming” of Greater Prairie Chickens all around him.
Amiel, a northern Virginia resident and member of the NoVA Teen Birding Club, had journeyed to Fort Pierre National Grassland in South Dakota to watch and photograph Greater Prairie Chickens as the males put on elaborate displays in the hope of attracting a mate. He had spent the night in a 4 x 8 plywood box with a small viewing window, and his sleeping bag wasn’t adequate to protect him from the 18-degree overnight temperature. Nonetheless, he quietly began photographing the birds as they raised the long feathers on their necks, inflated their bright-orange throat sacs and released them with booming sounds that can be heard a mile away and performed a stylized dance.
Greater Prairie Chickens, Amiel Hopkins
Amiel submitted five of the photos he took that day to the National Audubon Society’s 2022 Photo Awards Contest. One of those photos, a closeup of a bird with its neck feathers raised and its orange throat sac glowing in the morning sunlight, won the Youth Honorable Mention Award. You can see Amiel’s winning photograph and all the other winning entries here. Accompanying this article is a photograph taken the same day he shot the winning photo of the Greater Prairie Chicken.
Amiel says he has been interested in nature his whole life. He got his first camera seven years ago, and since then has become increasingly interested in bird photography. He particularly likes photographing shorebirds, because he can get down low to capture images at the birds’ level. Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge and the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuges on the Outer Banks are two of his favorite places to bird.
Amiel credits Fred Atwood, a local teacher and the sponsor of the NoVA Teen Birding Club, for not only encouraging his passion for birding but also influencing how he views nature and life. He calls Fred a “great mentor.” In turn, Fred advises that Amiel’s winning picture is only a small representative of his amazing photo portfolio. Few people get to see Amiel’s photos. He says he doesn’t show them off very often, and the National Audubon Society’s contest is the only one he has ever entered.
Amiel is a senior in high school, and will be leaving to attend Virginia Tech this fall, where he plans to specialize in wildlife biology.