Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Skimmers Up Close and Personal

Black Skimmers have to be one of my favorite birds of all time. I can remember the first time that I saw a group of these birds skimming the surface of the water in the back bay of Chincoteague Island. I could not believe my eyes. These beautiful birds are the only (or one of the only) birds that has a longer bottom bill than the top. They fly low to the water with their mouths open and put the bottom bill in the water as they fly. Their mouths snap shut if the bottom bill touches something in the water - hopefully a fish. It is pretty neat to see.

There were hundreds of Skimmers on the beach in Cape May this weekend which is unusual. It gave me an opportunity to photograph them up close as they flew around and rested on the beach. Enjoy. Remember to click on any image to enlarge it.

Solo Flight


The whole Gang


Cropped - I thought this looked cool


Youngster practicing his skimming on the puddle


At rest on the beach - look how narrow the bill is

I think this is the advantage of being at the shore often now. I have time to walk the beach with my camera to get some decent shots. I hope to have more for you later in the week. Post a comment if you like the skimmers.

5 comments:

Diane Widdop said...

I like the skimmers. (I do what I'm told...)

I bet whoever was with you has some shoddy video of those skimmers on the beach.

Amy said...

This is a great series of pictures! Had to look at them all enlarged. :) I just got my lifer Black Skimmer earlier this year. They are really cool to watch but somehow when they do their skimming it makes my teeth hurt, haha! Can't believe how thin those bills are.

Linda said...

Amy -- it makes my teeth hurt too! Thanks for the comment.

Modesto Viegas said...

Good series!

Orphan said...

I like! And you are inspiring me to save up for that new lens....