The Hover and the Dive

At Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, I finally captured a behavior I had been chasing for years. A Forster's Tern hovered overhead, suspended in place as it locked onto its target below. Then, in an instant, it folded its wings and dropped — piercing the water with a sharp splash. For a moment, all that remained was motion and spray. The tern reemerged, lifting off with a small fish held firmly in its bill. Watching the full sequence unfold through the viewfinder — from hover, to dive, to success — was one of those rare moments when patience, timing, and light all came together at once.