Bay-breasted Warbler, Magee Marsh Wildlife Area, Oak Harbor, Ohio

The birds may have been close and at or below eye-level on the last few days of the Biggest Week in American Birding, but that does not mean they were easy. Warblers rarely are. They were feeding so avidly and moving so fast through thick brush that it was difficult to catch them in the frame…and even more difficult to get unobstructed shots. Leaves were emerging rapidly and there always seemed to a twig or two (when there were not a dozen) between us and the birds. Still, persistence is the key. I probably took 5000 frames during the 10 days I was in Ohio. I imported 2500 of them to my iPad, and processed almost 600 keepers. And I was “working” the festival, so my time on the boardwalk was limited. This Bay-breasted Warbler is from my final turn around the boardwalk after closing up Optics Alley. Sony RX10iv at 600mm. Program mode. 1/500th @ f4 @ ISO 400. Processed in Polarr. To give you an idea of how close the bird was, this is cropped only slightly from full frame.