Caspian Terns 5/21/25
I’ve been getting some late starts to the day recently which puts me out at a pretty rough time for photography, especially when we have some of our sunnier days. So I wasn’t expecting to get too much, but figured if I got myself really close to the ocean and could get close to some critters, I might be able to mitigate the heat distortion problems. I saw a small flock of Caspian Terns hanging out on the beach right by the water line and thought “bingo!”. I made my way on to the beach and tried to approach as stealthily as a guy with a big camera can. They were a bit skittish, but I eventually worked my way close enough to get a few shots. I imagined the tern in photo3 was crying out “why are there still so many Velella Velellas around!?!”, and he promptly took off.
I normally try to avoid birds against a plain blue sky if I can, but one exception is the Caspian Tern. There’s something about that bright red bill, the white body and deep black head that I think seems to work well with a blue background.
