Perseverance

 It's been a funny old sort of day really. This morning it seemed like there would be quite a few birds coming through as I was seeing several warblers high up in the trees. After lunch around 2pm I went out and got set up and there was nothing happening. The light was pretty good, a nice smattering of cloud to prevent the harsh early afternoon light. Just towards the back of the waterfall a Virginia Bluebell is currently blooming and it attracted a passing Ruby-throated Hummingbird. Shit! Panic! Fire away. Rack up the shutter speed with a twist of the back dial. I didn't see what it was, it was faster than the 1/800th sec I had been on. Turns out I whacked it up to 1/10,000th sec. I managed to get a few shots but the ISO was as high as 10,000 which is pretty noisy. Turned out pretty good though😀

Ruby-throated Hummingbird

It's not going to win any prizes but damn I'm pleased with it.

After that excitement there was very little happening at all and after a 1/2 hour stretch without a bird I was thinking about packing up. I didn't though, I stuck it out, I persevered and was rewarded with this beauty.

Brown Thrasher

That cheered me up no end and a nice Myrtle Warbler came and posed for me.

Myrtle Warbler

Myrtle Warbler

A little while later a nice Baltimore Oriole stopped and had a splash in the water. One thing I've noticed about these Orioles is that they fly in, have a bathe, fly off to preen then come back shortly after for another go. Sure enough this one did exactly that.

Baltimore Oriole

Baltimore Oriole