Picture Of The Week 05-26-08

Where: Laurel Dale, WV • County Reservoir

Notes: Several miles of West Virginia mountain side strolls were rewarded on the last morning of my weekend stay when this spectacular spring plumage bird returned to the Wild Cherry tree where I originally heard it singing from. This little yellow gem seemed to be feeding on insects that were attracted by the bouquets of white cherry flowers. I walked past this bloom filled tree to get into favorable position. Then turned around to get the sun out of my face and to be near some of the available perches with in the tree. I set my ISO speed and added some focal length by increasing my f-stop number f 5.6 to f 7.1) to allow for a little more detail in the floral suroundings. I could only hope and wait for the Warbler's return. After only fifteen minutes the tree was revisited. I could see the bright yellow bird hopping around behind the leaves and branches, just out of clear sight. Then with a short hop, it was suddenly perched twelve feet in front of me, unobstructed. I was only able to squeeze off one burst of five shots as it stopped to sing a quick chorus of its "sweet-sweet-s-s-s-s-sweet" song. Then it quickly returned to its pursuit of insects and was once again hidden from view and then flew off. When I see something so awesome it makes me think, "There must be a God! How else could something this beautiful exist?"