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Black Tern (and smoke!)

Photo of the Week (August 19th, 2018)

(archive photos of the week here)

Wow.  With all the fires in the western US and Canada, even far-flung areas such as southeastern South Dakota are being affected by the smoke. I went out on a Saturday to go birding, encouraged by a forecast of clear skies. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, but the smoke obscured the sky, and even a clear-day sun had a hard time penetrating through to the Earth's surface. The light was magical, however, with an eerie reddish glow that lasted long after sunrise.  Here a Black Tern flies through the muted, smoke-filtered reflection of the sun on a wetland in Brookings County, South Dakota.

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Click here for more information on this species