I have been feeling really overwhelmed and emotional lately with everything going on in the world as well as my dad losing his job due to Covid19 (it’s understandably hard to employ a catering director at a college during a pandemic). Nature is always the place I go to calm down my thoughts and find peace. This assignment came at the perfect time and rather than go into a town or city where choosing one specific color would be easy, I decided to go to one of my favorite birding hotspots, the Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge in Swanton VT (about 40 mins from my house). It is a very lush and green place at this time of year, but not many flowers or colorful plants grow on the trails. So, I thought of colors that I might see in both the flora and fauna. I went with yellow because I knew Yellow Warblers were common in the area and I knew that buttercups covered the fields that I walk through to get to the marsh trail (my favorite part of the refuge).

My first photo came when I was walking through the buttercup fields. I was going to stick with just a shot of the buttercups, but then a Bobolink decided to drop in and show off his soft yellow cap on his head that fit with the buttercups nicely. As I walked along the path leading to the marsh, I heard the familiar call of the Yellow Warbler. Their song sounds like “Sweet, sweet, so so so sweet.” Once I got a few shots of these irresistibly adorable birds, I arrived at the first view of the marsh and continued along the edge, stopping to photograph birds with any yellow on their plumage. I first saw the Kingbird that has a muted yellow lower belly. I then saw a very common sight for the marsh, Red-winged Blackbirds. The female sporting a yellowish face, and the male sporting his famous red wing patches, with a small yellow patch right below it. Then I continued along the marsh until I got around to the opposite side, close to the entrance to the woods trail. I looked into the marsh and saw a massive Bullfrog and was entranced by his yellow eyes. I wanted to make it an even 8 shots, but the clock was running down and I only had a few minutes left in the 20 minute time frame. I knew that Great-crested Flycatchers inhabited the woods and they have a beautiful, pale yellow chest that I was hoping to capture for my final image. However, I heard rustling to my left and saw a Painted turtle taking a leisurely walk through the forest. His bold yellow striping on his head was the perfect focal point for my final image. I had a lot of fun with this assignment, and even though it took a lot longer than I expected to create it with the timeline website and google spreadsheet, I am happy with the result!

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