Least terns, all shots from this year. Shot over the course of the nesting season. The light ranged from non existent, gloomy clouds, foggy, bright cloudy, golden hour, to unusable midday sun on hot sand. The images are not presented in exact chronological order shot, but instead to tell the story and show the progression of the season. They have a tough life. Probably posting way too many, my apologies.
1. Coming in with food [/url]
2.
3. Gotta show off the goods. Sell it!
4. She said yes!
5. The food has to come from somewhere
6. The colors and light
7. Flying through the colony looking for a likely mate
8. Prancing through the potential takers
9. Sometimes the gift doesn't want to cooperate
10. Sitting on eggs
11. If your partner is going to sit on eggs, you better deliver food!
12. Sometimes they more than fill the frame
13. Too many flight shots
14.
15. Dive bomber (colony is very tolerant if you approach low and lay down in the sand, until a dog goes close by then they dive bomb everything in sight)
16. Motion blur
17.
18. Shake it off
19. So proud of himself for delivering another meal
20. Finally, the hard works pays off and the fuzzballs appear
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22. It's going to take a lot of food deliveries to get the chicks to full grown
23. Little one choking down a fish in the background
24. Running away from food
25. Food doesn't grow on trees
26. Learning to explore
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28. Protection
29. A little one under each wing on a very gloomy day
30. Big world for a little one
31. A happy family
32. Unbridle joy at a food delivery (My favorite of the entire series)
33. They can see food coming
34. Another gloomy day handoff
35. Napping together
36. Exploring together
37. Growing big takes lots of food
38.
39. Feed me!
40. I haven't been fed in 20 minutes!
41. Most don't make it. They get picked off by gull billed terns or other natural or unnatural predators (domestic dogs). Here a gull billed tern carries away a tern chick with a plover in hot pursuit.
42. Some days the light was too good to pass up filling a memory card
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50. They shake off sand and water the same way
51. I lost count at how many transfers I captured and how many I missed out on. Inevitably, due to photographers luck, most of them disappeared behind a piece of brush or a big rock for the decisive moment.
52. Stretching those wings
53. Flight is imminent
54. More food deliveries first
55. One of the few times the chick wasn't there to snatch the food the instant the parent landed.
56. Food on the way
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58.
59. Pretty much full grown and ready to fly
60.
61. Some made it!
Hopefully you made it this far. I couldn't help but post too many. Thanks for viewing.
Aug 08, 2022 at 11:42 PM
Previous versions of TGPhotography's message #16012766 « Least, yet best, terns (warning: many, many images) »
