This was entirely staged and I'll explain how next. I was paddling along the edge of a lake in New Hampshire after just having scouted a loon nest that had not hatched yet. I was on my way back to the boat launch and had some time so I worked the edge of the lake. In this one area that had a decent stretch of sandy beach I saw and heard this Northern Waterthrush as it fed along the shoreline. I watched the bird do this for a while and realized I could probably get some great photos of it. I paddled ashore a decent distance away from where the bird was and got out with my camera. My first move was to lay low and crawl towards it and sure enough I got some solid shots that way. After a bit it moved into the forest, came back out, then went back in. I knew this was its territory and so I saw this log with such wonderful texture laying in a nearby spot. I grabbed the log and placed it on the shoreline but floating out into the calm water. Knowing how waterthrush behave I figured if the bird came back along that shoreline it would very likely use that log to get out into the water more to search for food. It wasn't even 5 minutes after I put that log there that the bird was back on the beach and did exactly as I had anticipated and walked right out on that log for this photo. I love when I can have an understanding of a species natural behaviors and take advantage of that for photography and in a way help them out in their search for food. Both waterthrush species will almost always choose to walk across a log vs. fly to get where they want and I've used that understanding for some wonderful photo opportunities more than once.