I took these images at Nickerson Bch. The chick was running so fast I had a hard time tracking it from my low position and far distance. I had no idea it was running from a Gull -billed Tern at the time. I was focused on the chick only and was trying to keep an eye on it. I got home and saw the images on my monitor. It wasn't until I showed them to Artie and he told me that it was probably attacked by the gull. After reviewing the sequence of images turns out he was right -I never noticed the tern in the scene before:eek:
this is the second one in the sequence. This shows the impact of the fall-look at the sand that is kicked up. Again the image quality stinks these were far away and it happened very fast.
Wow! That is an incredible series. The first one is amazing - Alfred Hitchcock comes to mind. Seeing that Tern flying directly at me would have been scary - poor little chick.
I am glad that you posted these. They are amazing. My fave is the first. If the tiny thing had not reacted so quickly it would have been lunch.
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Fantastic sequence...I'm with Arthur, the first image is the best with the intense look of desperation on the chick's face and its legs streached out in what must have been an extremely tight evasive turn. The rest complete the story... What lens/hardware were you using?? I am also very impressed you could get so close to what must have been fast action..
Thank you all for your kind comments. I appreciate it.
Don, You are right it happened so quickly. I was using my 500mm lens and my 1.4 ex. on a tripod. I was low to the ground. I was using the Canon 1D Mark III.
I've just been lurking here Denise! All said above but I will add that I was surprised that the predator was a Gull-billed Tern. I am not sure that this sort of behaviour is known for this species. I'll check. Maybe just having "gull" in the name of the species is enough to make it do things like this!!!
John, Thanks I appreciate any info.
Ilija, Thanks for the encouragement.:) I hadn't thought about publishing them ,not sure they are good enough -I just thought others might like to see them.
Oh I think they are more than good. The one with blood on the legs is good by any standards,
but the first one with the tern could go in a competition IMO.
Piping Plover Chick Attacked
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