Life Bird: Black Tern

[Axel Hildebrandt]

A few days ago I read reports about a Black Tern that had been spotted at a local pond. I couldn't find the bird and went to a different pond and there it was, yay! The light was already very low, the images are not spectacular but I was happy nonetheless.

http://www.pbase.com/axelhi/image/124564900/original.jpg

1D4, 500f4, 1.4x, 1/1000s, f/8, ISO 1600, manual exposure, cropped from horizontal

[Ilija Dukovski]

Great light, almost no shadow on the bird, and superb flight pose,
great flight capture for a tern (high speed flight).
I don't think I have seen too many images of the species
in breeding plumage not to mention flight image.

[Julie Brown]

Congrats Axel! Love the wing position, HA and eye contact.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Axel, must have been a great feeling. Loved the exposure and the catchlight. Liked the crop a lot too. Only wish is a slightly more colorful sky :-)

[Bruce Enns]

Congrats on the lifer Axel! An excellent result in low light, great head and body position and good details. I too wish for a more colorful sky.

Cheers!
Bruce

[Mike Milicia]

Nice even light and underside detail!
I would be happy with this one, too!

[Stephen Stephen]

Congratulations on the life list addition Axel. Lovely inflight in sweet light.

We usually have a couple of pairs of black terns in one location in Ottawa each summer but I've not looked for them yet.

[Stu Bowie]

The light looks good to me, and love the flying posture. A complete new species to me, and TFS.

[arash_hazeghi]

very nice Axel, tough to get and nice wing position. for my own taste I'd sharpen a bit more.

[John Haig]

Congratulations on the lifer, Axel. I've been hoping they nest on my pond...had a few pair buzzing it the last couple of days but no joy so far...they show up and tease me every year.