All of last summer, I spent untold hours among thetern breeding colony at Plymouth Long Beach in MA as part of the preparation for the upcoming FLIGHT PATH show where 80 of my images and wall murals will be opening on 5/3 this year...this will be a long, 5 month show which chronicles shorebird migration, breeding etc.
After having spent all those hours with the terns, it was easy to know (and sort of sad) when they were about to leave for the season. Common and Royal terns, adults and fledglings alike, began massing on the north end of the beach for a couple of days.
Early one morning, I could tell that they were jittery,, blasting off every 15 minutes or so and then settling down.
I had a feeling that at dusk that evening they would be off and as luck would have it I was correct...and I was there.
It was one of those occasions when mother nature gives one goose bumps. Estimates from the Audubon folks whom I was there with put the entire group at about 35,000 common and roseate terns.....as much as 50% of the entire roseate population in the US had gathered there.
The sun had already set and evening had become twilight when they arose and everything around me was a total blur.
Desperately wanting to capture at least some essence of this event, I shot "blur" images of this wonderful event in the post sunset twilight.....
Image Captured Nikon D2Xs and 500 AFSII....the full file of this image had been printed at 15' in length and will hang as one of the lead ins to the exhibit....
While I like the image, it really didn't capture the full essence of what I was witnessing until I saw the preliminary image printed at 15' :)
Last edited by Jim Fenton; 03-17-2008 at 01:49 PM.