Intimate Moments

When fellow photographer, Guy, pointed out a Common Murre on Inner Farne Island in England, I did not expect that I would soon be witnessing the circle of life. I looked down and saw an light green egg with a hole in it.  At first, I was sad to see a hole in the egg, thinking something haåegg under its belly and squatted down.  We were so excited but realized that we had only 20 minutes before we had to be back on the boat to leave Inner Farne Island for the day.  Nothing was going to get me to budge from that spot until the boat left.  I adjusted my camera settings as best as I could in the sunlight and waited.  I knew I could run across the island to the boat in 5 minutes so I kept watch until the very end and was rewarded!

Image: Common Murre and its egg. Inner Farne Island. Nikon D500, Nikkor 200-500 mm at 500 mm, f/8.0, 1/640 sec, ISO 800, hand-held

For one quick instant, the murre looked down at its egg and decided to help the birthing process.  Unfortunately, it only helped a little before it covered the egg back up and I had to run to catch the boat.  Although I didn’t see the hatching process, I was on cloud 9!

I hated having to wait 21.5 hours to get back to the island, but the next day, I made a beeline for the murre and its newborn chick!!! The sun was as bright as could be and this was the best shot I could take of the chick.

Image: Common Murre and its newborn chick, Inner Farne Island. Nikon D500, Nikkor 200-500 mm at 210 mm, f/6.3, 1/2500 sec, ISO 500, hand-held

The chick didn’t move much that first day while I was watching it.  The parent preened the chick’s feathers and covered it up off and on. When the parent settled in on the chick, I moved away, eager to come back the next day.

On day 2 of the chick’s life, we had cloudy weather so I was able to get a nicer shot of the parent and the chick.  The baby seemed to have more vitality and energy and was now able to hold up its head!

Image: Common Murre and its newborn chick, Inner Farne Island. Nikon D500, Nikkor 200-500 mm at 200 mm, f/11, 1/500 sec, ISO 800, hand-held

Soon the preening process began again and I saw a little bit of wing movement as the chick began to test itself and its body’s capabilities.

Image: Common Murre and its newborn chick, Inner Farne Island. Nikon D500, Nikkor 200-500 mm at 200 mm, f/6.3, 1/2000 sec, ISO 800, hand-held

As I stayed to watch these moments, I was lucky to see the second parent arrive and join in on the care of the chick.  At first, parent #2 watched the preening process.

Image: Common Murres and their newborn chick, Inner Farne Island. Nikon D500, Nikkor 200-500 mm at 200 mm, f/8, 1/1250 sec, ISO 800, hand-held

Then I saw the bond develop between both parents and the chick.  It was truly special moment.

Image: Common Murres and their newborn chick, Inner Farne Island. Nikon D500, Nikkor 200-500 mm at 210 mm, f/8, 1/1250 sec, ISO 800, hand-held

Parent #2 then got a few moments with the chick as parent #1 looked on.

Image: Common Murres and their newborn chick, Inner Farne Island. Nikon D500, Nikkor 200-500 mm at 200 mm, f/8, 1/800 sec, ISO 800, hand-held

Sorting through images for this blog post warmed my heart.  I knew when I captured that first image that I was going to see something so simple but yet so intimate and magical.  I had many more to share but only selected a few that told the story.