The Arctic Terns are mating and one of the prominent rituals is the feeding of the female. She picks a spot (not necessarily a nesting location) then sits and waits, with intermittent calls, while her suitor flies off to the ocean and finds fish. When he gets a fish he brings it back to her and hands it off on the fly then goes back for more. This seems to go on for most of the day with occasional rest breaks for the male tern. This particular photo was taken a split second after the transfer of the fish. I was caught by surprise when the male returned and was zoomed in too far. The other shots caught the moment of exchange but had cut off wings. This one worked because of the horizontal wing position. I cropped top and bottom for a 4K (16:9) format for display on a TV but didn’t crop horizontally. I got a full feeding sequence later by zooming out and making room for wings. I also got a super close-up of a transfer that focused on the birds heads and the fish.
Note: It’s much more interesting when viewed large!
Sony a6500, FE200400G @ 211 mm, ISO-320, f/5.6, 1/2500, hand held.
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Really excellent environmental action picture. Good job on the plumage exposure and detail. Very cool image. Nothing you could do about it but the gray color of the rocks and the grayish plumage of the Arctic Tern decreases the separation between the environment and the bird. I have the same problem with Killdeer.
Wow are you ever close!. Nice action and behavior shot. Exposure looks good as does the detail. It must have been fun to be kept on your toes.
Hi Gary,
Awesome shot. Comp is perfect. I like the diagonal of yellows and browns which pulls the eye towards the terns. I like this as presented…Jim
I remember your images of this behavior last year, Gary, and it’s an experience definitely worth repeating. This one is excellent. She must be a very trusting bird to let you get a shot like this at 211 mm. Excellent work.
211mm?? Wow, that’s awesome. Love the action, and the image quality is very good. I’d echo @David_Schoen’s comment about the separation. Any chance you could get lower?
What a superb action photo. I like the curvature of the male’s wings as well as the detail in both birds. You’d be hard pressed to do better. Congrats! Richard
The problem was that my truck was my blind. I just go out and park in the empty field and they don’t mind the vehicle so I just have to wait until one settles down close enough to shoot. In this case she came to me and picked her spot right next to my truck. I took this shot with the 200-600 but couldn’t open up much wider so I ended up switching to my 70-200 for a while. I left for lunch while they were both on a break and came back later in the afternoon and parked further away from her spot and was able to get some successful sequences of the feeding process. Even then the angle wasn’t very low. I couldn’t get down on the ground because the moment you step out of the vehicle, the whole field erupts with angry terns and I didn’t want to upset them. I’ll probably post the successful sequence in the avian showcase real soon.
The Point of Exchange - - This is the close-up shot of the same two terns that I mentioned. I have a number of shots as the exchange took place but I liked this one because they both have their beaks on the fish.
