Greater Black-backed Gull, Pond at Fortune’s Rocks, Maine.

The gulls were restless yesterday in the ponds behind the beach at Fortune’s Rocks, just south of Biddeford Pool Maine. They were mostly big gulls…Greater Black-backed (like this one) and Herring. Every few moments one of them would do the whole standing-on-the-water thing with its wings out and water flying everywhere. I caught a few in action. This shot is not perfect…but it catches the action and the effect.

I am always amazed when I get a photo that shows the articulation of the wings this way. I tend to think, knowing no better, of birds’ wings like airplane wings…flat and rigid…sticking out at the sides…only birds move them up and down. Of course that is totally wrong. The bird’s wing is more like a sail, shaped by the wind and need to support the bird in powered flight, in a glide, in take off, and in landing. And a very sophisticated sail at that…one that can be cupped to assume complex curves to suit the moment. Look at the power in this gull’s wings!

Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 125 @ f6.5. Processed and cropped just slightly in Lightroom.