“He turned back,” says Alejandro Prieto, explaining the resolution of the poignant wildlife drama captured in a photo entitled “Blocked,” which won him acclaim—and a nice cash prize from a U.K. group that selected his work from over 22,000 entries as the 2021 Bird Photographer of the Year.
Prieto’s winning shot documented the dangers suffered by a roadrunner at a recently built, heavily fortified section of the wall at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Roadrunners, rabbits, raccoons and wildcats—who can penetrate the new wall far less easily than humans, according to a November 2, 2019, story in the Washington Post—are not the only creatures in danger near the wall, Prieto said. During his 16 months shooting along both sides of the 2,000-mile border, Prieto was confronted by the U.S. Border Patrol countless times and smugglers twice, and was aggressively told to go away and not to come back.
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