Can a Sandwich Tern Chick Have an Orange Bill?

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What’s Up?

I have not had this much fun on an IPT in ages. After screwing up the first morning sunrise things have been getting better and better. We had a very nice sunrise on Monday (but not as great on the one on Sunday had been). Like Sunday morning, things got hot fast but we enjoyed some excellent photography. Monday evening was the bomb with a cool north wind and an indigo black cloud to the north. We did lots of flight photography. Tuesday morning was blessed cloudy and we shot lots of large tern chicks on the clean sand. Tuesday night was fabulous as we photographed dozens of Royal Tern chicks in the wash on a cloudy bright afternoon. Until two very overweight rednecks drove at high speed right through large flocks of birds (including the terns that were right in front of us) on their e-bikes. They hit a young Laughing Gull and broke its wing and passed by us laughing. When they returned, they paused to give us some lip. We called the cops and they did come. Not sure if they found them.

The birds returned after a while and were amazingly tame. At 6:45pm the sheriff came to shoo us off the beach so I took Steve and Sandy out for dinner at the Palms Fish Camp Restaurant. The food was quite good and we had a great time.

I just finished downloading and learned that I have 5830 images to edit from our great day. And most of those were made with the (slower frame rate) a-1. As there was little wind in the afternoon, there was not much flight photography so I rarely used the a9 iii.

Today is Wednesday 17 July and we will be back out there early hoping for a killer sunrise to make up for the one we missed. I hope that you have fun too.

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Gear Questions and Advice

Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of photographers whom I see in the field and on BPN, are — out of ignorance — using the wrong gear, especially when it comes to tripods and more especially, tripod heads. And the same is true in spades when ordering new camera bodies or lenses. My advice will often stave you some serious money and may help you avoid making a seriously bad choice. Please know that I am always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail. If you are desperate, you can try me on my cell at 863-221-2372. Please leave a message and shoot me a text if I do not pick up.

This image was created by multiple IPT veteran Steve Shore on 15 July 2024 at Huguenot Memorial Park on the third morning of the extended JAX IPT. Seated on dry sand behind his flattened tripod, he used the Robus RC-5570 Vantage Series 3 Carbon Fiber Tripod/Levered-Clamp FlexShooter Pro-mounted Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens, the Sony FE 2.0x Teleconverter, and The One, the Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless Digital Camera). The exposure was determined via Zebra technology with ISO on the thumb dial. ISO 1600. 1/1000 sec. at f/8 (wide open) in Manual mode. When evaluated in RawDigger, the raw file brightness was determined to be dead solid perfect. AWB at 7:44:13am on a blessedly cloudy morning. Tracking: Zone/AF-C with Bird-Eye/Face Detection performed perfectly. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy a high-res version. Image #1: Sandwich Terns with fish for tern chick

The Situation

We were sitting on the beach near a patch of pretty clean sand facing east on a cloudy morning. There were handsome tern chicks of varying sizes everywhere. The relatively small chick featured in both of today’s images, confused the heck out of us. With its orange bill, it sure looked like a Royal Tern chick. For more than an hour, several adult Sandwich Terns landed nearby attempting to feed it. Though it was begging constantly, it was never fed. At times, one or two more adult Sandwich Terns would join in the coffee klatch.

My advice to Steve was to trust Tracking; Zone AF, acquire focus, and blast away whenever there was some action. Why not be more selective with both framing and focus? If you tried to see a good pose you would not be fast enough to capture it before it was gone. So we both sprayed and prayed and each of us made several fine images.

Remember that Steve switched to Sony at my urging before the last spring Fort DeSoto IPT that he attended. His progress has been astounding. He cannot believe the sharpness he is getting at 1200mm.

This image was also 15 July 2024 at Huguenot Memorial Park on the third morning of the extended JAX IPT. Seated on dry sand behind my flattened tripod, I used the Robus RC-5570 Vantage Series 3 Carbon Fiber Tripod/Levered-Clamp FlexShooter Pro-mounted Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens, the Sony FE 2.0x Teleconverter, and The One, the Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless Digital Camera). The exposure was determined via Zebra technology with ISO on the thumb dial. ISO 1600. 1/1000 sec. at f/8 (wide open) in Manual mode. When evaluated in RawDigger, the raw file brightness was determined to be 1/3 stop short of perfect. AWB at 7:44:50am on a blessedly cloudy morning. Tracking: Zone/AF-C with Bird-Eye/Face Detection performed perfectly. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy a high-res version. Image #2: Sandwich Terns with fish and a tern chick

My Best

I used the same approach that I had advised Steve to use and got really lucky on this one. I sprayed and prayed the field. I rarely look at images on the back of the camera in field and thus was totally amazed when this one popped up.

Color Balance

Though the two images were made within a minute or so of each other and we were both using. AWB, note that Steve’s image, #1, is bluer with a darker background than my somewhat warmer image. I did not realize thatI had optimized them so differently. Which color balance do you prefer?

Can a Sandwich Tern Chick Have an Orange Bill?

I am pretty sure that the chick was in fact a Royal Tern as Sandwich Tern chicks have slimmer bills that range from yellow to black with a bit of yellow … But I would not bet my life on it. If it was a Royal Tern chick, the only explanation is that the adult birds were somehow confused.

Typos

With all blog posts, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors.