I was once doing a bald eagle count at Jordan Lake in central North Carolina. It was about six-thirty in the morning, there was an autumnal zing in the air, and I was standing at water's edge, waiting for a bald eagle to come by so I could count it.

Because I was on the eastern shore of the lake, with the dawn at my back, there cannot be a physical explanation for how beautiful this prothonotary warbler (Protonotaria citrea Boddaert) that flew up was. I had never seen one before...I'd read that they were a hypersaturated yellow, but this one took my breath away. It was as if a Crayola crayon decided to be a bird when it grew up.

Warblers like to eat bugs. Also, they do not warble.

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