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View Full Version : Sandwich Tern gets his come-uppance


PeterD
April 27th, 2008, 10:22 PM
Thought I would group together three of my shots and add a short commentary. I know a picture is worth a thousand words but sometimes the background can add a little interest.

While walking the dog along Langstone harbour, I noticed what I thought were black headed gulls diving into the sea. This behaviour made me very curious so I used the Bigma to identify the birds.

http://surfbirds.com/albums/data/500/Sandwich_tern-4263954.jpg (http://surfbirds.com/albums/showphoto.php?photo=6338&ppuser=1130)

I noticed that lumps were in the bird's beaks as they emerged from the sea. I thought they were fishing so I took another shot to see what they had caught.

http://surfbirds.com/albums/data/500/medium/Sandwich_tern-4263952.jpg (http://surfbirds.com/albums/showphoto.php?photo=6336&size=big&cat=&ppuser=1130)

You can clearly see the fish here.

I thought it would be good to catch the dive but, time was running out and so I only had one shot. I missed the dive but caught the bird as it emerged.

http://surfbirds.com/albums/data/500/Sandwich_tern-4263953.jpg (http://surfbirds.com/albums/showphoto.php?photo=6337&ppuser=1130)

It was only during Post processing that, to my excitement, I had caught a chance image.
You can see where the bird emerged in the foreground. Before it had chance to fly off, a large fish rose out of the water and hit the tail of the Tern, almost spilling it back in to the sea.

I think the tern had been following the fish shoal for some time.

Hope the above gives you as much pleasure as it did me.

PeterD

AndyB
April 28th, 2008, 06:35 AM
nice series of shots Peter

PeterD
April 28th, 2008, 08:08 AM
Thanks Andy

PeterD