This article features a number of new images of terns at Grimsby Harbour with most of the birds in-flight. This has been an unusual spring birding season with some locations like Hendrie Valley not being very productive.
NOTE: Click on images to enlarge.
Like most people who enjoy bird photography I accept that Mother Nature sometimes doesn’t give us as many opportunities on any given photographic outing.
Thus far in the season most of my productive bird photography sessions have been closer to home like these images of terns at Grimsby Harbour.
I never thought that I’d end up with too many photographs of swallows in-flight during a spring birding season. Strange times.
Birds will congregate where there is ample food, shelter and nesting opportunities. The relative absence of birds at Hendrie Valley has been a disappointment this season. Perhaps the water has been too deep in the ponds to allow for wading birds like herons to fish. Thus far I’ve not seen even one great blue heron fishing at Hendrie Valley.
Even the terns have been in short supply at Hendrie Valley. I’ve gone out to Grimsby Harbour to try to photograph terns on calm days. Whenever the breeze kicks up the terns move on to other fishing areas where the visibility of their prey is better.
Panning with a tern in flight using Pro Capture L does increase the opportunity to capture a tern dropping its catch in mid-air. It’s images like this one that encourage me to keep going out with my camera.
Capturing a tern exiting the water, even when unsuccessful with their fishing attempt, is always a treat.
Like many photographers I have an overabundance of typical fly-by images so I don’t usually spend too much of my time trying to capture additional ones.
During this particular visit to photograph terns at Grimsby harbour I was able to get an image run of a tern emerging from the water as seen in the next five consecutive photographs.
There were only a couple of terns attempting to fish during my recent visit. Most of their attempts were unsuccessful which could indicate that these were younger birds which had not yet developed good fishing technique.
Technical Note:
Photographs were captured handheld using camera gear as noted in the EXIF data. Images were produced from RAW files using my standard approach in post. Crops are noted. Images were resized for web use. This is the 1,181 article published on this website since its original inception in 2015.
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