Black Skimmers Fishing

[Every Miles A Memory]

I went out yesterday to fool around and see what I could find. I've been trying to get some shots of the White Pelicans that are migrating through our area, but it was too windy to get out on the water, so I'm stuck shooting from the shore.

It was there that I watched a group of birds come soaring in and skim inches from the surface of the water with what looked like their beak in the water.

I have never seen this before and was caught off gaurd at first. Here I am with a camera in hand, but not even shooting because I'm just watching the birds skim the surface. Imagine when I got home and looked the species up to find they were called Black Skimmers Who'd a Thunk It?

So enough talk about the birds, here are a few of the shots I caught

It's amazing how fast these birds move and trying to track them in flight was quite the challenge for me and my limited abilities

 

[KSJeep]

Nice Pat, think you caught them just right with your "Limited Ability"...lol

 

[Every Miles A Memory]

Thanks Kevin, I've been practicing Birds in Flight type of shooting, and getting pretty good at knowing what to expect with the birds and their landing and take off's, but these Skimmers flying in a very irregular 'S' pattern and they move at about Mach 2:Wow1:

Now that I know what to expect, I'm planning on going back out to see if I can get better shots. It's pretty dang cool to watch them kick up a little wake with their beaks in the water

 

[haven]

Nice photos!

Skimmers are a fascinating family of birds. There are three species, only one of which appears in the Americas. (There are Skimmer species in Africa and India, too.) Skimmers are the only birds in which the lower mandible (the lower part of the beak) is longer than the upper.

Skimmers fly back and forth over ponds, rivers and calm ocean inlets, dragging the lower beak in the water in search of tiny fish. When a small fish is encountered, the Skimmer instantly clamps its beak closed, catching the fish.

Black Skimmers are relatively large, but slender, birds, about 17-18" in length, with a wingspan more than double that length. They are very swift, acrobatic fliers. It's a real pleasure to watch a group of Black Skimmers course back and forth along the still waters of a pond.

In USA, Black Skimmers are found along the Gulf Coast and south Atlantic Coast, and in a few spots in coastal California. Their numbers are declining, mostly to to loss of nesting habitat and disturbance of nesting areas by human activity.

 

[Every Miles A Memory]

Thanks for all the info Haven!!

We were just sitting down on the dock having lunch and watched a few different flocks of hundreds of these birds fly over.

Even my wife Cindy commented that she didnt think she'd be able to follow their speed through the eye piece of the lens. Its amazing how fast and irractic they move until they come in to skim the surface

Ok, I'm going out with the camera now to see what I can capture

 

[Every Miles A Memory]

Late this afternoon a few big flocks of the Black Skimmers came flying through. I wasnt able to get any shots of them skimming the surface, I think the winds were too strong, but the lighting was about perfect

 

[Ursidae69]

Nice action shots. I've never been able to get a black skimmer fishing, awesome!

 

[daverami]

Great photos, thanks for sharing those. If you don't mind, what lens/camera combo are you using?

 

[Every Miles A Memory]

Great photos, thanks for sharing those. If you don't mind, what lens/camera combo are you using?

Lately my camera/lens combo of choice has been the wifes Canon 30D with a Canon 400 f/2.8 lens and most of these shots were with a 2x extender mounted on the lens. So I'm really shooting at 800mm which is why the birds are so tight in the frame.

Without the extender on the lens, I'd probably get alot more keepers, because when tracking a bird in flight, if you lose the bird, the lens right away tries to refocus on just empty blue sky or water and it takes a few seconds to find it's focus again.

Without the extender on, it rarely loses focus, but I find myself cropping so much of the image, that I lose major quality, so it's a trade off either way you look at it

 

[ernestgj]

These were taken in Naples, FL. Interesting to see them skim across the relatively rough water.

 

[DaveInDenver]

Awesome photos, both of you! Would be cool to see when one of them catches something.

 

[Every Miles A Memory]

That's very interesting to see them skim across rough water!

I've yet to see them do that and even on mild chop, they'll just fly around and land on the oyster bars, but never skim

I guess I need to go out on different conditions to see what I can get!

 

[ernestgj]

We were in Florida for a week at the end of January and it was windy everyday, so maybe they got hungry enough to give it a shot in the chop.

Also was really cloudy all week, that's why the pictures look so "flat."

 

[Every Miles A Memory]

That has been our weather all winter long. It's been so windy out in Cedar Key, I cant wait to get our turbine hooked up so we can start living with no electricity costs.

Going on Thursday to have it wired in!