I went out for a paddle in the canoe. I usually take my camera with me because if I don’t, there will have been a great photo opportunity missed. The Terns have been diving, so I thought that I might be able to get a picture of one on its way down into the water for a fish. That didn’t happen, but I did get a few good pics of willets and terns around Westpoint Harbor. There is an abundance of wildlife here. For some other bird pictures, see my snowy egret post. For this outing, I set my camera to full-automatic mode so that it would take rapid-fire photos as soon as I pushed the button–in hopes of capturing a dive in progress.

The Willets were out in force as can be seen:

The Willets like to hang out on this little island just off of Westpoint Harbor.

The Terns were performing for me:

This is a Tern hovering in the air after seeing a fish or something that looks tasty and just before taking a dive to go catch it:

The Tern dove, I missed it on the camera (I do have several photos of splashing water with no bird anywhere to be seen). This bird did get a nice dragonfly snack as can be seen.

I didn’t know how they swallowed in flight but they can really swivel their head when they do. No doubt that this bird slowed down during this maneuver because I didn’t get him in the center of the photo–at least that is my excuse.

Bird photos take patience and persistence. I will take my camera again next time I go out for a paddle so that I can get more photos of Willets and Terns around Westpoint Harbor, and maybe, just maybe a successful photo of a Tern diving.