Sterna forsteri

One of the neat things about photographing birds, at least for me, is that photos can sometimes reveal details about birds that are easily missed when looking through binoculars or a scope. An example of this is seen in this photo of a Forster’s Tern that I took at Bolivar Flats this afternoon. The tern swooped down and plucked this large fish from the water and then flew away with it. The whole event lasted only a few seconds and at the time I was impressed that the tern caught such a large fish. Later when I reviewed the photos I noticed that a good portion of the tail of the fish was missing and I believe the fish was probably already dead before the bird plucked it from the water. As I was watching the bird pull the fish out of the water I was impressed that this small tern could handle such a large fish but now I wonder if it could only handle such a large one because the fish was already dead. It may not be a big deal but this small detail did significantly enhance my enjoyment of the encounter.

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