Piping Plover chicks: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, June 2025 — It was amazing to spend an hour with these two, maybe two day old, Piping Plover chicks and their parents on the beach yesterday. The chicks are totally fearless…eager to explore, finding all kinds of tasty bugs, running like wind-up toys across the sand, going nowhere in particular. The parents are frantic, trying to herd them and protect them from all the considerable dangers in this world. Sound familiar? So much fun, and such a privilege to watch. And a real challenge to photograph, if you into that as well. If you take a close look at any of these photos, you will see why Piping Plover chicks give any camera’s auto focus fits. The things are blurry by nature, intentionally blurry. No sharp edges but their legs, no contrast to the plumage, which is itself too fluffy and undefined to focus on, and their eyes are always hooded, half open, and deep set. No target at all. Still, with persistence, and throwing away way all the many many near-misses, it is possible to come home with a few keepers. 🙂 Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my birds and wildlife modifications. (I kept switching back and forth between focus areas but I am not sure it made any difference.) Processed in Photomator.

Piping Plover chick: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, June 2025 — I have been seeing photos of this piping plover chick since it hatched a week ago, but not seen it myself until Monday. They blend in so well with the sand, and it is, after all, only one tiny puff of feathers and toothpick legs. It is so small and so fuzzy, that the camera still will not focus on it even at a week old. It is pretty much independent now. The parents have even given up trying to keep it corralled to the safe zone behind the nesting area ropes. It is running all over the beach. Which is probably why I finally saw it. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 600mm equivalent (and heavily cropped at that). Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.

Least Tern: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, June 2025 — I am still very much “practicing” to be a Tern photographer…at least a terns-in-flight photographer. They are way faster and more agile than either I or my camera. Still persistence sometimes almost pays off. 🙂 This is almost a satisfying shot. Almost, if I don’t look too close. I will try a slightly faster shutter speed next time out. I remind myself it is not about perfection. It is only about catching a hint of the grace and beauty of the living tern. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my birds-in-flight and action modifications. Processed in Photomator.