Common Tern

[Roopak Gangadharan]

Sterna hirundo.

No where as common as the name suggests and I was lucky to get a shot of this bird at rest and quite close. One gets to see them flying non stop near the beaches and rarely inland. This was near a wetland with some paddy fields on Calicut outskirts. I was in a hide and waiting for a Ruddy breasted crake to come out when this landed close to me out of the blue. It was suspicious and kept looking in my direction, but later it even took a dip in a pool of water nearby.

500D, 55-250, 250mm, Ae, f7.1, ISO 200, SS 1/400.
C&C welcome

[Sucheth Lingachar]

Beautiful bird and beautifully captured with green background....

[Mrudul Godbole]

Nice you got it so close. Good perch and eye contact. Liked the composition. The paddy fields in the background look nice. Did you get it while dipping in the water? Thanks for sharing.

[Abhirup Dutta Gupta]

Excellent shot.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Roopak,
Nice to see this one. The overall greenery looks nice. Great to know that someone is using a hide. Did you make it like the locals do with branches etc or it is a stitched thing. The villagers often throw old gunny bags on a few sticks to create a hide.

One can get many hours of unalloyed joy watching these beauties from a hide. Thanks for sharing.

[Jitendra Katre]

very sharp image, good composition, greens look nice.

[Roopak Gangadharan]

Thanks all for comments.

Mrudul- yes I did get some shots of it in the water. will post soon

Sir, in kerala coconut frond leaves are woven togather to form a good covering material which was used for building huts etc in the past. Now these are used for making temporary shelters in the feilds. Two of these can be joined to form a water proof cylinderical hide which is light weight. The good thing is that it not as conspicious as a cloth hide in these settings and can be left anywhere. I found this to be more effective than cloth hides.

Rgds
Roopak