This Mew Gull chick that is bathing next to the beach is one of the two in my previous gull post “Afternoon at the Beach” . What a difference in two weeks time! The chicks have lost most of their fuzz, have grown big beautiful wings and are almost as large as their mother! They’ve also changed colors from a brownish hue to a grey and white theme. From further observation I’ve also determined that there wasn’t one gull family with 4 chicks; there were two gull families with two chicks each.
I made myself comfortable next to the water about 30 ft away from this family and put the 1.4 TC on the 100-400 so that I wouldn’t disturb them. While I was taking photos over about an hour, they worked their way toward me until they were about 15 ft. away. Then ‘Mom’ flew over and set on a rock right beside me, settled down and went to sleep! The kids followed and the next thing I knew I was trying to shoot photos from 5 ft. away with way too much lens! I took the 1.4 TC off and put it in my pocket and was able to get a whole bunch of great photos of which this is one. I’ll be posting some of them in the avian galleries later.
Sony a6500, FE 100-400 GM @ 336 mm. , ISO-250, f/8.0, 1/3200, Hand held.
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Gary Minish