I was birding at Nescopeck State Park over the summer, making my way on the path around the lake for the second time, when I paused in a stand of dense pines to try and capture a bird near the creek. It was a fruitless effort, but as I stepped back onto the path I realized that someone else was singing loudly and nearby, and in my focus I had almost entirely tuned it out.
Imagine my surprise when I turned around, honing in on the singing, to find a black and white warbler sitting on a pine branch, at eye level and well within range of my lens! He mostly ignored me as he continued to sing, and I had a solid couple of minutes of time with him before he paused and relocated higher in the tree.
The only downside in this otherwise spectacular interaction was the light – the dense shade beneath the pines dragged the exposure down, with bright backlighting from the clearing beyond. Thank goodness for modern noise reduction in post-processing, which helped mitigate the impact of ISO 6400, which is where the camera’s auto ISO range tops out.