I retuned to Fort De Soto in early May with the hopes of finding migrants. I started off at North Beach, where a group of Black Skimmers was working a tide pool. Black Skimmers are one of the few birds whose lower beak (mandible) is longer than the top. The skimmers feed by dragging their bottom beak through the water to catch a fish. It’s so much fun to try to photograph!

Look carefully at the photo above. You can see the ridge of water that he cut with his beak. Plus he has beads of water in his wing feathers. Pretty!

The skimmers make a fun little barking sound as they fly. It’s unmistakeable after you’ve spent an afternoon in a skimmer colony. These skimmers flew back and forth in the soft morning light, fishing their way up and down the beach. I knelt down and enjoyed the awesome autofocus of the R5. My favorite shot was this last one, with a juxtaposition of two skimming birds.

As the name of this post suggests, this post barely skims the surface of my morning at Fort De Soto. It was awesome!! More coming in the next post…