Wildlife Photographic Journals

Taking Terns

I could never get bored of photographing terns. They are very interesting birds that form some great postures when stood and always graceful and elegant in flight. Earlier this year I joined up to a local nature reserve which provides a temporary summer home to large numbers of terns particularly Common Terns.

So I recently paid a couple of visits to the reserve with the specific goal of photographing some of the birds before they dispersed southward.

It really is an excellent place for photographing the birds as the opportunities to puts birds in front of the lens from one of the hides is so numerous. They form some interesting postures when they land in display to other passing birds.

What I was really after was some good flight photos but was this required a morning visit with a south-easterly to get the birds coming in the right direction which never really happened. The sun was also typically fleeting as it has been recently. I still managed some flight photos but not the image I have in my head. I admit I messed quite a few flight photos up with ends of wings out of the frame. Then again when you see the length of the wings that comes as no great surprise!

However, a few flight photos did come my way...

The birds are already starting to disperse from the reserve so I will probably leave them for now but am already planning for a mini-project with them next year although hopefully on a day when conditions are perfect.