Cape Coral Friends of Wildlife announce winners in Burrowing Owl Photo Contest
After delving through nearly 200 submissions, the Cape Coral Friends of Wildlife last weekend announced the winner of its annual Burrowing Owl Photo Contest.
This yearly contest highlights the talent of amateur photographers and celebrates Cape Coral’s dedication to wildlife conservation. The Grand Prize-winning photo is to be proudly featured on the official T-shirt for the 2026 Burrowing Owl Festival.
First place in the adult division was awarded to Conrad Peloquin, with the winning photograph in the youth category belonging to Adalynn Miller.
“CCFW was thrilled with the enthusiastic response to this year’s photo contest,” said CCFW spokesperson Janet Windisch. “So many talented amateur photographers were excited to share their work — the adorable owls really captured everyone’s imagination. It was a joy to present the awards and showcase the winning photos on the big screen at the awards ceremony.”
Second place in the adult category went to Damon Bell, with Robert K. Brinley taking third. Honorable mentions included Cindy Felice, Debbie Davis and Sam Troyer.
Second place in the youth category, which saw a record-high number of submissions, belonged to August Lambert, with Josh Pilon taking home third. Honorable mentions included Harper Bubley, Camde Dalziel, Laila Ellis, Olivia Garcia, Alexandria Krupa, Shawn Krzos, Stella Moran, Kristina Saavedra and Ryleigh Steeb-Howard.
The youth winner’s photograph will be used in next year’s Ground Owl Day event.
Windisch said CCFW is excited to showcase these amazing photographer’s work in the upcoming slate of events.
“We’re incredibly grateful to feature the stunning photos from our contest on next year’s Burrowing Owl Festival and Ground Owl Day T-shirts,” she said. “These submissions help us create unique, adorable designs that are always a hit. They may also be used in our brochures, posters and other promotions — all helping to raise awareness and support CCFW’s mission to protect and preserve local wildlife.”
Judges this year were Cape Coral City Manager Michael Ilczyszyn, NBC2 Meteorologist Rob Duns and last year’s photo contest winner, Darlene Coughlin.
Participants were allowed to submit just one photo, and were permitted to crop; make minor adjustments to color, white balance, lighting levels and curves, shadows and highlight, saturation, contrast, sharpness; moderate dodging and burning; removal of dust sports and moderate reduction of image noise.
Judges scored eligible photographs on technical quality (30%), originality (30%), and artistic merit (40%).
Cape Coral Friends of Wildlife is a volunteer-driven organization dedicated to preserving and enhancing habitats for protected wildlife species while educating the community about Cape Coral’s unique wildlife resources.
All of the winning photos can be found by visiting CCFW’s website.