JuvenileBlackSkimmer1

Photo Study Of A First Year Black Skimmer At E.B. Forsythe NWR (Atlantic County), August 23, 2011

    Ed Norman and I hit Brig yesterday and were rewarded with lots of shorebirds, Terns, Night-Herons, Ospreys and the previously reported
    juvenile White Ibis. However, for me, the treat of the day was a First Year Black Skimmer. Despite the magnitude 5.8 earthquake which rocked
    my car at 1:52PM, this bird seemed totally undeterred in its quest for a meal.

First Year Black Skimmer Skims

First Year Black Skimmer Looks Back

First Year Black Skimmer Turns

First Year Black Skimmer Flies By

And for comparative purposes, here are five Black Skimmer photos taken previously as noted:

Fledgling Black Skimmer At Stone Harbor Beach, 2010

Sleeping Adult Black Skimmer At Stone Harbor Beach, 2009

Resting Adult Black Skimmer At Stone Harbor Beach, 2009

Adult Black Skimmer Skims At Stone Harbor Beach, 2009

Adult Black Skimmer Skims At Brig, July 19th, 2011

     The Black Skimmer (Rynchops niger) is a tern-like seabird. It ranges between 15.8 and 19.5 inches in length with a 42 to 50 inch wingspan.
     The males weigh about 11.5 oz. as compared to the smaller female’s 8 oz. The remarkable bill of the Black Skimmer sets it apart from all other
     American birds. The large red and black bill is knife-thin and the lower mandible is longer than the upper. The bird drags its lower bill through
     the water as it flies along, hoping to catch small fish. Although the mandibles are of equal length at hatching, they rapidly become unequal
     during fledging. The eye has a dark brown iris and cat-like vertical pupil, unique for a bird. The legs are red. The call is a barking kak-kak-kak.
     Adults in breeding plumage have a black crown, nape and upper body. The forehead and underparts are white. The upper wings are black with
     white on the rear edge, and the tail and rump are dark gray with white edges. The underwing color varies from white to dusky gray depending
     on region. Immature birds have brown upperparts with white feather tips and fringes. The underparts and forehead are white, and the
     the underwings similar to the adult. It breeds in both North and South America. Northern populations winter in the warmer waters of the
     Caribbean and the tropical and subtropical Pacific coasts. However, the South American races make only shorter movements in response to
     annual floods which extend their feeding areas in the river shallows. The Black Skimmer nests in loose groups on sandbanks and sandy beaches
     in the Americas. They lay three to seven heavily dark-blotched buff or bluish eggs which are then incubated by both the male and female. The
     chicks leave the nest as soon as they hatch and lie inconspicuously in the nest depression or "scrape" where they are shaded from high
     temperatures by the parents. They may dig their own depressions in the sand at times. Parents feed the young almost exclusively during the day
     with almost no feeding occurring at night, due to the entire population of adults often departing the colony to forage.
     (Cornell BNA; Wikipedia; Sibley Guide To Birds)

Species Seen Today:

Canada Goose	Clapper Rail	Forster's Tern
American Black Duck	Black-bellied Plover	Black Skimmer
Mallard	Semipalmated Plover	Mourning Dove
Ruddy Duck	Killdeer	Blue Jay
Double-crested Cormorant	American Oystercatcher	American Crow
Great Blue Heron	Lesser Yellowlegs	Fish Crow
Great Egret	Solitary Sandpiper	Purple Martin
Snowy Egret	Willet	Tree Swallow
Black-crowned Night-Heron	Spotted Sandpiper	American Robin
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron	Semipalmated Sandpiper	Gray Catbird
White Ibis	Least Sandpiper	Northern Mockingbird
Glossy Ibis	Short-billed Dowitcher	European Starling
Turkey Vulture	Laughing Gull	Seaside Sparrow
Black Vulture	Herring Gull	Song Sparrow
Osprey	Great Black-backed Gull	Red-winged Blackbird
Bald Eagle	Gull-billed Tern	Boat-tailed Grackle
Peregrine Falcon	Caspian Tern	American Goldfinch

To see a larger image of any of the photos below, please click on either the thumbnails or the captions...thanks!


JuvenileBlackSkimmer1	JuvenileBlackSkimmer2	JuvenileBlackSkimmer3	JuvenileBlackSkimmer4	JuvenileBlackSkimmer5 CatchesFish

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