Picture Of The Week 04-27-09

Where: Gatesville, NC • Merchant's Mill Pond State Park

Notes: That weekend my partner, Lori, and I paddled all over the mill pond seeking encounters with some of the arriving spring migrants, especially the warblers. The Spanish Moss covered cypress trees were full of bird calls and the emerging lily pads gave a feeling of renewal to the landscape. As our camping and canoeing adventure came to a close, we headed for the boat ramp. On the way back Lori spotted this brilliant bird poking around the mossy base of a cypress tree. It was only a few of feet in front of us. This Prothonotary did not seem to be slightly bothered by our quiet approach in the canoe. So I grabbed my camera and swung it up to my eye expecting the bird to flee from my movement, but it stayed. At first my camera had difficulty auto-focusing because we were so close. So I quickly opened up my f-stop to allow more of the image to be in focus and switched to short distance focusing. Despite my frantic motion I was able to squeeze off a few shots before this golden gem flew over to the next tree forage. This made for a nice ending to our trip to such a beautiful, magical place.