Things have been quite busy the last few months and I haven't posted anything in quite some time. This past weekend I spent a day in Oak Hammock Marsh near Stonewall, Manitoba. It doesn't look like the migrants are moving through yet, but there are still lots of summer residents around. One thing there were plenty of was Black Terns. Man - these birds can be hard to shoot in flight! Terns in general are tough because of thier erratic flight, but I find these Black Terns worse than most - they are consistently making unexpected banking turns and I find the black adults can be hard to get a good focus lock on somethimes. Here is an adult delivering a freshly caught dragonfly nymph to one of her newly fledged chicks.
While I am happy with the adult's position, I do wish the fledgling was more side on to the camera. I got a little lucky on this shot - I was "machine gunning" the shutter anticipating the moment and was fortunate enough to have my fill flash recycle & fire in the "critical" frame.
Canon 1DIV -- Canon 800mm f/5.6L IS -- f/6.3 @ 1/1250s -- ISO400 -- Manual Exposure (0 EV) -- Fill Flash @ -2 2/3 EV
What an awesome capture. I understand you would like to see more of the juv's face, but I truly think this works as it esp b/c you can see the food and the handoff. The light is stunning, and I actually would not have known you used flash on this. You did an awesome job with this one.
This is a terrific behavioral shot, Jeff! I love the composition and the point of view.
The wing position on the flying tern is excellent and the position of the fledgling is fine.
The habitat is also well depicted without distracting the attention from the birds.