The California Least Tern is an endangered subspecies of the Least Tern. In mid 1970′s, their numbers were only at around 600 pairs in the world, at which point the bird was listed as endangered. Since then, thanks to the protection of their habitat and nesting areas, the population of the California Least Tern has increased to approximately 7-8 thousand pairs.
I was lucky to be able to shoot a mom in her nest with two eggs:
I also took pictures of a some nestlings, but they were far away and the pics didn’t come out as good as I hoped. Plus, the nestlings have little dark spots on their bodies that resemble the sand and stones around them and it was tough to acquire correct focus on them. They were darn cute though! :)
About Nasim Mansurov
