Black Skimmer on a Parking Lot Just Outside Merritt Island NWR, Florida

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I photographed this Black Skimmer at a parking lot just outside Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge located immediately north of the NASA Space complex on Florida's Atlantic Coast. Jan Nagalski and his wife Felicia and my wife Angela and I had agreed to meet at the refuge, but at no particular place and time. Angela and I had arrived earlier and were about halfway through the Black Point Wildlife Drive when we got a cellphone call from Jan telling us that they were at a parking lot just outside the refuge where we had met many times before. He further told us that they were parked next to a grounded flock of Black Skimmers. You must understand, Black Skimmers were very important targets on both our lists of birds we wanted to photograph on this trip. At first, I thought that Jan was having some fun at my expense, but slowly I began to believe him. We rushed as much as we could around the one-way Black Point Wildlife Drive and out of the refuge. When we got to where Jan and Felicia were, I found a sight beyond my wildest dream. Jan and Felicia were parked next to a flock of about 200 Black Skimmers. It had been a miserable day – dark, drizzly and very windy. The wind was so strong that these birds could not fly and had sought refuge in the parking lot huddled close to the ground. I opened the car driver's window and shot a couple of hundred frames from the comfort and warmth of inside our car.
The Black Skimmer is a tern-like seabird, one of three very similar bird species in the skimmer genus in the gull family. It breeds in North and South America. Northern populations winter in the warmer waters of Florida the Caribbean and the tropical and subtropical Pacific coasts, but the South American races make only shorter movements in response to annual floods which extend their feeding areas into the river shallows. The Black Skimmer is the largest of the three skimmer species. It measures 16 to 20 inches (40–50cm) long with a 42-to-50-inch (107–127cm) wingspan. This species ranges from 7.5 to 15.8 ounces (212 to 447g), with males averaging about 12.3 ounces (349g), as compared to the smaller female's 9.0 ounces (254g). The basal half of the bill is red, the rest mainly black, and the lower mandible is much elongated. The eye has a dark brown iris and catlike 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 grey with white edges. The underwing color varies from white to dusky grey depending on region. Non-breeding adults have paler and browner upperparts, and a white nape collar. Immature birds have brown upperparts with white feather tips and fringes. The underparts and forehead are white, and the underwings as the adult.
Info above was extracted from Wikipedia.

Taken in: United States / Florida / Nelson Trailer Park (show map)

Taken on: February 21, 2020

Tags:

Black Skimmer

Skimmer, Black

Rynchops Niger

Rynchops

Gull

Seabird

Merritt Island NWR

Black Point Wildlife Drive

Black Point

Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge

Merritt Island

National Wildlife Refuge

NWR

Florida

Paul Fernandez « less

Sets appears in: • Life Birds • Birds of Florida - Miscellaneous

Camera: Nikon D800, f/10.0, 1/60 sec, 500mm, ISO 400 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Nikon D800
Lens:	200.0-400.0 mm f/4.0
Aperture:	f/10.0
Exposure Time:	0.017 sec (1/60)
Focal Length:	500mm
ISO:	400
Exposure Bias:	-1 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Aperture-priority AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Spot
White Balance:	Auto
Gain Control:	Low gain up
Sharpness:	Hard
Color Space:	Uncalibrated
Software:	Adobe Photoshop CS6 (Windows)
Show full info

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