Arctic Tern

Gallery: AvianPosted July 11, 201096 views12 comments

There is a breeding 'ternery' of these magnificent birds at Brora in the far north of Scotland. I was there these past few days to play some golf with very good friends and was told about this colony. Fortunately, I had time to photograph them two evenings ago - being so far north, it stays light till almost 10. This Tern's marathon annual migration between the polar regions is well documented. It was worth skipping dinner for this one hour session!

1D MkIV, 300mm f2.8 + 1.4X, 1/8000 @ f5.6, ISO800, broken cloud, windy and ever-changing light, hand-held.

Thanks for looking; c & c please.

Comments

12 comments

Comment posted by Luke Ormand on July 11, 2010 at 2:46 PM

Awesome light and the tailspread is clutch. Would like it a little bigger in the frame and I think the 1/8000 was a bit overkill

Registered on February 4, 2009, 1093 Posts, 7035 Comments

Comment posted by Monica Siri on July 11, 2010 at 3:43 PM

KC,
beautiful light and flight pose with the splayed tail. I love this species. These birds are so elegant.

Registered on September 20, 2009, 132 Posts, 3764 Comments

Comment posted by Dan Harbour on July 11, 2010 at 6:37 PM

Perfect flight pose, KC.

Registered on January 4, 2008, 113 Posts, 2416 Comments

Comment posted by Dennis Plank on July 11, 2010 at 7:10 PM

Beautiful, Kwan. Great wing position and angle.

Registered on January 28, 2008, 1767 Posts, 23192 Comments

Comment posted by Jim DeWitt on July 11, 2010 at 10:19 PM

Nice, KC. I find this species very difficult to photograph. I haven't been able to capture their buoyant, active flight. You've captured some of the sense of it. Well done.

Registered on August 28, 2006, 1240 Posts, 8506 Comments

Comment posted by Rob Drummond on July 12, 2010 at 8:33 AM

Lovely shot KC - love the flared tail streamers

cheers
Rob

Registered on November 8, 2003, 617 Posts, 8267 Comments

Comment posted by Ian Mason on July 12, 2010 at 4:01 PM

Lovely capture Kwan! I like the open bill and the eye detail especially, which is so difficult with these. I hope they didn't attack you as they do on the Farne Islands!

Registered on December 14, 2005, 399 Posts, 2305 Comments

Comment posted by Simon Bennett on July 12, 2010 at 5:14 PM

Good wing position and head-turn, KC.

Registered on February 4, 2007, 350 Posts, 4614 Comments

Comment posted by KC Choo on July 12, 2010 at 5:42 PM

I hope they didn't attack you as they do on the Farne Islands!

Thanks, Ian! Yes, a couple of them did when I went up to the fence to read a Notice before I even took my camera out of the bag! I immediately backed off and thought I saw Alfred Hitchcock direct me to do so!

Registered on November 15, 2004, 519 Posts, 8278 Comments

Comment posted by May Haga on July 12, 2010 at 5:46 PM

Great capture KC.

May

Registered on February 22, 2007, 714 Posts, 8470 Comments

Comment posted by Nate Chappell on July 12, 2010 at 9:28 PM

Neat shot Kwan, are you going to watch any of the Open over there?

Registered on February 1, 2006, 1158 Posts, 19528 Comments

Comment posted by Kurt Bowman on July 13, 2010 at 10:58 AM

Beautiful capture Kwan! Love the angle, open beak and colors! Curious about something....with the light changing on and off so much, did you try using the MIVs auto shutter settings and/or ISO settings? I use them a lot in AV mode when I have the same situation. In Colorado, we get a lot of changing light with clouds moving quickly over the mountains. It allows me to set the parameters of what I want so I don't have to manually keep changing them in this situation.

Registered on June 19, 2008, 1005 Posts, 8028 Comments