A juvenile Royal Tern head onA juvenile Royal Tern head on – Nikon D200, handheld,  f7.1, 1/1250, ISO 160, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 300mm, natural light

While working on moving my photos to new galleries yesterday I came across this head on image of a juvenile Royal Tern taken at Fort De Soto County Park in 2008. Every time I look at this tern image I laugh because my mind sees a tiny starfish stuck on the birds face that is actually its bill. Because the tern is looking straight at me the length of the bill appears compressed and star shaped. The “starfish” is just an optical illusion.

A juvenile Royal Tern close upA juvenile Royal Tern close up – Nikon D200, handheld,  f7.1, 1/1250, ISO 160, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 300mm, natural light

The photo above is the same juvenile Royal Tern but shows the head and bill in profile and the bill doesn’t even remotely look like a starfish in this frame. I don’t know if other people see the starfish that I see because until now I haven’t shown the file to anyone else before.

On my new photo galleries… I have moved about half the images to their new galleries but I still have 3591 to go. Most of those images are of birds. I think I an addicted to bird photography and that isn’t an illusion!

Life is good.

Mia