Since last year when everything screeched to a halt, I have gotten very much into bird photography. It got me outdoors with nature and DH, it was entertaining, educational and it was safe. Well, relatively safe if one avoided the poison ivy, ticks and mosquitoes but far far safer than anything else.
This year we took our birding exploration on a road trip to Northwest Ohio and Lake Erie for the tail end of a big festival known as the Biggest Week in American Birding. I will be sharing more about that in upcoming posts but today, since it is Monochrome Monday, I want to show you another bird I saw for the first time at a place called Metzger Marsh – the Common Tern.
The birds in color are pretty much monochromatic being mostly black, white and grey with red feet and bills and they are very fast flyers and divers. Tried as I might, I was not able to get one diving into the water and coming out with a fish. But I did get some flying images. When I worked my Lightroom and Photoshop magic on these images to turn them into – what appears to me anyway – almost charcoal drawing artistic images, they made me think of some silk screen works I’d seen in the past. Negative space and minimalism in photography here.
What do you think of the results? Have you ever seen these birds before and if so where?
Will post their color versions next – Teri 📷
Images by T.Dashfield Photography 
I see these nearly every day while I’m working. They’re here year round, but they’re rare breeders in this area, and they’re most common from early spring through fall. I do occasionally see a young one atop a piling waiting to be fed. It’s fun to watch.
Cool and if you don’t mind, where is there? Would like to know where these birds range.
Galveston Bay, Clear Lake, and surrounding marinas.
Thanks. They have a big range.
That Tern turned out beautifully.
Thanks, Tim 🙂
Lovely photos, Teri!
Thank you, Belinda 🙂
Very elegant flyers. 🙂
That they are!
‘Tern’: une sterne, of course… (My memory is playing tricks…) 😉
There ya go! 🙂