"Yip" "Yip" "Yip"eee for August

August is a weird month for birders. It's weird because most of the northern hemisphere considers August the epitome of summer. Everyone is thinking about days on the beach. One of my favorite birds nests on the beach. They fly close to the water and "Yip, yip yip" like puppies. They nest in colonies along the beach which are roped off to protect them from beach going vacationers like us. Here is one of the happy couples.

Black Skimmers

 This one has an itch. Check out the schnoz on this guy.

Scratch that itch

Here is another happy couple with their little fluff ball of joy.

Black Skimmers with Baby

The babies are the color of sand. They even have spots that look like shells and stones. Here are 2 little play pals on the beach.

When Mom and Dad are out fishing, the chicks find little divots to hide in. They are perfectly camouflaged - except for that schnoz!

Skimmer Chick - camouflaged

Skimmers' beaks are so big that they can't sleep like other birds with their beaks tucked under their wings. No, they just flop their heads down on the sand.

Napping on the beach

Like mother, like daughter - the chicks flop their heads on the sand to sleep even though their beaks aren't big enough to get in the way yet.

Lullaby Time

Here is a close up to show you what that beak is all about. The bottom mandible is longer than the top and shaped like a knife. They drag that through the water's surface while they fly and feel for fish. When they feel one, they snap their beak shut to snare the fish.

Close-up of Skimmer Beak

Skimmers also put on an aerial show in their free time. Even way up there, you can see that schnoz!

Skimmer Antics

Meanwhile, there are plenty of other birds to see in August. Some of them are already done with all of that chick raising stuff and headed back south - in August. More on that later.

Double Skimmer with a Side of Butterflies

As promised - here are a few photos of Black Skimmers from last weekend.  My one true fan has implored me not to post the gross ones so I'll skip those for this post. 

I LOVE to photograph Skimmers. I take photos of them every time I see them. I can't stop myself.  It has something to do with the specialized bill.

Black Skimmer

They use that bill to find food. Basically, they fly along the water with the bottom of the bill in the water and hope that it hits something to eat, then they snap it shut.  Here is the "money shot" with 2 birds skimming together. Check out the wake they leave behind.

Black Skimmers

They skim along and then the reward - a fish!  Here is one of the birds with his prize and some seaweed too. Zoom in to see the fish up close.

Skimmer with Fish

And then there were butterflies. Lots of butterflies. I don't know anything about butterfly ID, so we made up our own names for most of them. This one is NOT a Monarch. It looks like a Monarch but it is smaller. It's called a Viceroy but we call it Cigarette.

Viceroy Butterfly

Buckeye

Yellow

Pearl Jam

Black Swallowtail

More to come. I have alot of stories and photos to offload this week.  I'll warn you if I post the circle of life photo.

Late August in Cape May

It's that time of year again - early migration in Cape May. Late August is the time of year that we get to see the return of our shorebird friends as I told you about last week.  It's also the time of year that warblers start to head south for the winter.  And, it's the time of year that relatives start to panic about the end of the summer and visit us at the shore before it's too late. That's what happened this week with Deb, Jay, Meaghan and Brendan.  The kids start back to college and school next week, so they took the opportunity to spend a few days in the Villas. 

Brendan and I got the chance to go birding before dinner on Monday and were rewarded with quite a good list and also met some nice people along the way.   We met a guy who lives in Cameron County PA and volunteers at the Elk visitor center - yes, there are Elk in Pennsylvania; and an older lady who recently lost her eyesight in one eye, so she was happy to talk to us about her bird feeder and other birding adventures of her youth; and a family who had 5 sons all under the age of 10 who were dressed alike for the cheesy beach photo.  The boys were really excited to look through my binoculars at the Mute Swans and ducks.  Each one of the exclaimed that they could see the swan!

In August, we also get interesting terns like these Black Terns which usually spend their time on freshwater lakes up in Nebraska and Alberta and places like that.  Each year, a few show up in Cape May for some reason.  This year, there have been reports of up to 31 Black Terns flying around the Concrete Ship and the Lighthouse. 

Brendan and I were fortunate enough to watch these 2 flying around Bunker Pond in front of the Lighthouse on Monday night. These terns are really small and unmistakable to identify by the overall dark color.

 Black Tern close-up.  Not a great photo, but it shows the black and gray markings.

Black Tern spitting something out of his mouth.

The Black Terns were a bonus find, but the real show was put on by the Black Skimmers!  We heard them before we could see them on the pond - "yipping" like dogs. Honestly, it sounds like a pond full of puppies with them yipping away at each other. The old lady with the reduced vision was enjoying the barks for sure.

Black Skimmer with reflection

This is why they call them "Skimmers"

 This guy snapped up a stick and then let it go

My best photo this season

Picture-In-Picture

For the first time in awhile, I am really excited to be sitting in my office in Center City Philadelphia.  Don't get me wrong, I would rather be out birding somewhere, but I have to pay the bills somehow!  The reason that I am excited is because I stumbled upon an idea to add wall art to my office using big artwork.  I then stumbled upon Megaprint.com after a quick Google search.  The result is that I now look up from my desk and see this:

It's 6 foot wide by 3 foot high which is what I needed to fill that awful, blank, white wall.  What makes this vinyl banner so great for me is that I took the photo!  Every time I look up from my desk, I am reminded of the day that I got to spend with the Black Skimmers on Cape May's beach (read the post here) and it makes me smile. 

I should tell you that the sales support at Megaprint was great.  I emailed Alex back and forth a few times asking about wallpaper, which was my original idea.  He suggested the vinyl which is a better option for my office.  He also reviewed the quality of the photo and suggested the 6' x 3' size to fit the resolution of the photo.

Gotta go take a phone call from another client but don't worry - I have something nice to look at until I can get outside again.

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.