We’d locked eyes as it had slowly flown through the high canopy. The tall oaks rooted in the bottom of the rocky rimmed grag on which I stood filled the gap between cliffs with their wide spanning branches. I’d been perched here for a long time, waiting as I sat on the edge listening. The sudden sound of an alarmed squirrel indicated a predator in the area. Thick pines that defined this ancient forest stood sentinel at the head of the grag. As I slowly stood and readied my camera I routinely glanced at the top menu window. Just then the battery life indicator blinked a few times and the screen went dead. Timing.
Knowing that I’d never be fast enough to swap batteries before whatever lurked in those green shadows emerged, I simply enjoyed the moment. I made eye contact as it wound it’s way slowly through the wide spanning branches of the oaks. Chuckling at my own fortune, the “mass” of its presence captured my imagination for a moment. I remembered something from my past.
Photos would have been amazing but the experience would have been removed by a filter of glass and circuits. Remembering who I am, and what I was about I made my way down the valley. As I stood next to a small trout stream this particular bird you see here seemed fixated on my position. Odds are good it was just after some small snack I was flushing from cover.
Either that or it was the same bird, only this time saying, “HEY! Look! I glow with the Sun now! Take my picture already!”
So I did.
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