TomKal foto

Some documentary photos made ​​on the breeding ponds is the starting gallery of the home tern. If the terns do not leave these ponds, you can be certain that there will be changes in the interior of the gallery. So far, the ones on my website represent this species. As befits a tern, it has an incredible wingspan, almost one meter in comparison with its body weight, which is just over 100 grams.
Last minute news - South Africa - 02/2017
Last minute news - 08/2017
I added a voice recording of Common terns.
Last minute news- 06/2018
I have taken photographs in many places, but never on a river barge which is a bird colony at the same time. The place and impressions are amazing. Such a close contact with the nature must make an impression. Over a small space several dozen pairs of the common tern built their nests. And on the hides’ roofs black-headed gulfs had their own ones too. I had one of such nests a dozen or so centimeters above my head while I was photographing. Every once in a while advanced tern chicks dropped in at the hide. Bored with wait for their parents, they strolled over the barge’s deck. One call of the parent and a young bird quickly comes back to the feeding spot.  You cannot miss a meal brought by your mum or dad. There was a huge commotion with those meals. When a parent brought one small fish, there weren’t any problems. A chick swallowed it and that’s all. Bigger fish, which weren’t easy to swallow created a commotion and hazard for the terns’ offspring. Once such a big game was brought, a chick tried to swallow the meal for a longer while. Both parents watched over them as there were many others willing to take the trophy over. Unfortunately it lasted so long that even the parents became disenchanted with watching over the chick. In the meantime, a tern attacked the young and it was so aggressive and determined that after an uneven fight it got the meal out of the chick’s throat. One of such incidents ended in the chick’s death. A tern which was laying eggs nearby approached the miserly chick, with a few pecks made sure that it was dead,  took it in its beak, made a short flight over the water, where she dropped it. An interesting thing to observe was an “unsuccessful” feeding attempt. If, at the moment of feeding, that is giving a fish to a chick, the fish fell down and was all covered with sand, the parent, after a while, took the dirty fish into its beak, made a short flight just over the water to rinse the sand off the game.  After the sand was cleaned from the fish, the parent came back with the „old” game for the next feeding attempt. I don’t know if sand is unhealthy for chicks, or if they eat only newly caught fish, but I happened once to observe four feeding attempts, each time after rinsing the same fish. These several hours spent among a tern colony situated on the 808th kilometer of the Vistula river (between Swiecie and Chelmno), and so many interesting things which I managed to observe. I learned about the laws specific for a colony of these birds. The same way as the birds compete for food and are quite possessive towards one another and towards the others’ chicks, they unite when an intruder appears in the area. Even a pigeon which sat on the hide for a while caused a massive attack on itself and was chased away from the bird colony. The conditions for birdwatching created on the barge were ideal, but photographing was not so easy. Having a proper perspective would require photographing birds from a distance of several dozen centimeters. Yes, that was the distance between me and „the front line” of the terns’ nests over a low bulkhead. Fortunately, I took several lenses, not knowing what I should expect in the conditions that were new for me. Eventually, I made use of the shortest one, the 70-200mm lens and a converter. Taking photos in a prone position for such a numerous population on such a small area wouldn’t probably make sense, and in fact there wasn’t enough space for that. Rising the lens to the sitting position gives you a wider watching space but impaires the perspective. Nevertheless, I managed to take many dynamic shots from this position, the type of photos which I value most highly, and ones that I like to come back to. I also managed to take several dozen pictures of the fish trophies and birds’ rings for scientific purposes. These few hours spent among a colony of common terns enabled me to take photos for an interesting and no longer documentary gallery of this species. The first gallery among terns’ galleries for which the photos were taken from a hide. And everything thanks to people’s kindness. Jarek, Jurek, thank you so much for the invitation to suuuch an encounter with the nature, which was a completely new experience for me. I ensure you that it was worth it, but you must see it and hear it for yourselves, I invite you to my gallery…
Last minute news – 05/2021 Madeira