Archive 2018 · How many terns are colliding?

morris
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · How many terns are colliding?

With thousands of terns nesting at Nickerson Beach it is an amazing site and sound when they all take to air at one time when they sense danger. Occasionally they bump into each other and there lack of mass prevents harm. How many collisions do you see in this image?

060718DSC_9626_DxO by Morris Bennett Altman, on Flickr

Morris

Jun 12, 2018 at 07:31 AM

NorthMac
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · How many terns are colliding?

OK,I’ll bite - I would say two, maybe three touches. But mostly the focus plane suggests what looks like collisions is just fore-and-aft overlap in space. In other words, if you had a vantage point above them, you would not see most of these apparent collisions.

Jun 13, 2018 at 09:36 PM

birdied
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · How many terns are colliding?

4 possibly. Hard to really tell

Birdie

Jun 13, 2018 at 11:11 PM

morris
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · How many terns are colliding?

NorthMac wrote:
OK,I’ll bite - I would say two, maybe three touches. But mostly the focus plane suggests what looks like collisions is just fore-and-aft overlap in space. In other words, if you had a vantage point above them, you would not see most of these apparent collisions.

It is tricky as you point out. I saw the birds move and/or react so I have a bit of and Idea. Thanks for playing. We will see what others have to say

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birdied wrote:
4 possibly. Hard to really tell

Birdie

Yes it is hard to tell. Had I shot video and let you slow it down it would be easy.

Thank you for playing, lets see what others say

Morris

Jun 14, 2018 at 07:30 PM


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