My encounter with this bold male Prothonatory Warbler was certainly one of the highlights of The Biggest Week in American Birding for me. I posted another extreme close-up a few days ago. The bird landed within 4 feet of me, right at the shortest focus of my lens. This is a full frame, uncropped shot. It does not get any better than that!

I did use Handy Photo’s retouching tools to remove a viney twig in the foreground that came right down across the bird’s neck. It was a good shot with the vine in, but it is better without it. 🙂

Olympus OM-D E-M10 with 75-300mm zoom. 600mm equivalent. Shutter preferred. 1/640th @ ISO 2000 @ f7.1. Processed in Snapseed and Handy Photo on my tablet.

And for the Sunday Thought: I seem to have featured a Prothonatory Warbler in last Sunday’s post as well. I have no excuse. I just think the Prothonatory is among the most attractive of Spring Warblers, and with their propensity to sing loudly and long from visible perches, they brighten any marshy forest and any spring day! They are such a cheerful bird. That might be anthropomorphsizing, but, then again, it might not. I can not escape the feeling, especially when the Prothonatory Warbler sings, that they are just full of, and bubbling over with, the joy of life. And honestly, why should we assume that they are any less capable of feeling joy than we are? Are we not all expressions of the one creative life that is living the universe around us into being? Okay, I know, that is a stretch from some of you…but it is an article of my faith, rooted in my experience of that life at work in me and around me…providing sufficient evidence so my answer to that question is, and always will be, resoundingly “yes!” We are all part of one life, and if that life contains so much joy for me, certainly the Warblers have their share!

And may you have yours today as well. Happy Sunday!