I’ve mentioned this before – Black Skimmers are one of my favorite birds. I look forward to seeing a beach full of them when I go to Cape May in the fall. This year, we visited twice. On the first morning we went to Higbee dike, ate breakfast and headed to the beach. There was not a huge flock of birds but we still had some photo ops.
The next morning, we went to the beach earlier and found hundreds of birds.
The perfect light
The tide was high and the waves were rough. The birds were a tad bit skittish of the aggressive ocean and would take flight easily.
The waves kept the Skimmers at bay
My friend, Jon, and I ended up getting soaked because we forgot to pay attention to the water behind us. Thankfully, I just got up from kneeling in the sand when the wave hit so my camera was safe.
The photo I took right before getting soaked by a wave
We ended up going to breakfast since it was across the road and returned afterwards when the tide was a bit lower. It ended up paying off! Here are some more photos that I took that morning.
I ended up getting a photo that I just missed last year – a head-on shot of a Skimmer showing the beak from the front.
I’ve been wanting a head-on photo for a long time!
Another photographic success!
Young Skimmer in flight
In addition to the photos, I took a few videos with my phone of the flock in flight.