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Sterna albifrons: A Chick is born (Common name: Little tern)
Nature is beautiful. However if you want to explore it and capture great pictures that reveal this beauty you need a lot more than just luck. True, once in a while, a great theme will appear in front of your camera. However, it is only with persistence and patience that truly magnificent results can be obtained. We have been up and down Strophylia reserve for over two years now; during these hundreds of visits and thousands of hours we have been there we took tens of thousands of photos. We have seen some great moments, most of them captured by our cameras. Photos of glory and defeat, life and death. However, capturing the birth of a new chick in the wild is definitely the highlight of them all. What follows is a log of the birth of a Sterna albiforns chick. The sequence of photos tells the whole story..
09:11 - A tiny crack is seen at the top of the egg.
9:21 - The crack is now much wider.
9:24 - The egg shell splits in two.
9:31 - One of the parents separates the two halves revealing the chick.
9:32 - The remainders of the egg are taken away from the nest and deposited elsewhere.
9:35 - The parent flies away for a moment to intercept another bird which could possibly prey on its chicks. This allows us to use our macro lens for a close up of the newly hatched chick.
10:10 - Feathers start to dry, eyes begin to open.
11:01 - Feathers have dried completely but the chick still refuses to accept food offered by its parent.
17:13 - One of the parents keeps the rest of the chicks using its wings and body, so the other parent can feed the new chick, which can now move and accept food.
Next day the whole family moved to the marshes.
Photos by Mahi Goula and George Parchas
Shooting Data:
1. Camera: Canon EOS 7D
Lens: Canon EF 100-400mmf/4.5-5.6L USM IS @ 400mm
Sensitivity: ISO 125
Shutter speed - aperture: 1/640 sec - f/8, Manual mode
Flash: no flash
Image: NEF edited in Photoshop CS4, levels adjusted, sharpening added saved as JPEG and resized.
2. Camera: Canon EOS 7D
Lens: Canon EF 100-400mmf/4.5-5.6L USM IS @ 400mm
Sensitivity: ISO 125
Shutter speed - aperture: 1/500 sec - f/8, Manual mode
Flash: No flash
Image: NEF edited in Photoshop CS4, levels adjusted, sharpening added saved as JPEG and resized.
3. Camera: Canon EOS 7D
Lens: Canon EF 100-400mmf/4.5-5.6L USM IS @ 400mm
Sensitivity: ISO 125
Shutter speed - aperture: 1/500 sec - f/8, Manual mode
Flash: No flash
Image: NEF edited in Photoshop CS4, levels adjusted, sharpening added saved as JPEG and resized.
4. Camera: Canon EOS 7D
Lens: Canon EF 100-400mmf/4.5-5.6L USM IS @ 400mm
Sensitivity: ISO 125
Shutter speed - aperture: 1/500 sec - f/8, Manual mode
Flash: No flash
Image: NEF edited in Photoshop CS4, levels adjusted, sharpening added saved as JPEG and resized.
5. Camera: Canon EOS 7D
Lens: Canon EF 100-400mmf/4.5-5.6L USM IS @ 400mm
Sensitivity: ISO 125
Shutter speed - aperture: 1/500 sec - f/8, Manual mode
Flash: No flash
Image: NEF edited in Photoshop CS4, levels adjusted, sharpening added saved as JPEG and resized.
6. Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Lens: Canon EF 180mmf/3.5L USM Macro 1:1
Sensitivity: ISO 200
Shutter speed - aperture: 1/250 sec - f/11, Manual mode
Flash: No flash
Image: NEF edited in Photoshop CS4, levels adjusted, sharpening added saved as JPEG and resized.
7.Camera: Canon EOS 7D
Lens: Canon EF 100-400mmf/4.5-5.6L USM IS @ 400mm
Sensitivity: ISO 125
Shutter speed - aperture: 1/320 sec - f/9, Manual mode
Flash: No flash
Image: NEF edited in Photoshop CS4, levels adjusted, sharpening added saved as JPEG and resized.
8. Camera: Canon EOS 7D
Lens: Canon EF 100-400mmf/4.5-5.6L USM IS @ 400 mm
Sensitivity: ISO 125
Shutter speed - aperture: 1/500 sec - f/9, Manual mode
Flash: No flash
Image: NEF edited in Photoshop CS4, levels adjusted, sharpening added saved as JPEG and resized.
9. Camera: Canon EOS 7D
Lens: Canon EF 100-400mmf/4.5-5.6L USM IS @ 400 mm
Sensitivity: ISO 400
Shutter speed - aperture: 1/1000 sec - f/11, Manual mode
Flash: No flash
Image: NEF edited in Photoshop CS4, levels adjusted, sharpening added saved as JPEG and resized.
10. Camera: Canon EOS 7D
Lens: Canon EF 100-400mmf/4.5-5.6L USM IS @ 400 mm
Sensitivity: ISO 400
Shutter speed - aperture: 1/1000 sec - f/11, Manual mode
Flash: No flash
Image: NEF edited in Photoshop CS4, levels adjusted, sharpening added saved as JPEG and resized.
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