Skimmer show

© 2013 Lydia Hinshaw

Black skimmer

 TITUSVILLE, FL -- This small city is only 50-odd miles south of our home, but since wildlife photography is best done in the early morning, we decided to spend two nights here to make that easier.
 We picked a motel according to location and price, crossed our fingers and hoped for the best.  Think thin paper bath mat, tiny threadbare towels (we brought our own), and cigarette burns partially concealed by feeble lighting.
 I will spare you any pictures.  It served our purposes, but two nights was enough.
 On our last morning, we thankfully checked out and headed off on a hunter's access road in the nearby Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.  This was a hard-packed, sand road that wandered causeway-style among mangroves and bodies of water.
 We had great luck as the sun rose, spotting a couple of black skimmers feeding.  Skimmers have extra long lower beaks.  They fly along quite fast with that lower lip in the water, gathering up whatever tiny organisms can't get out of the way in time.
 Finishing a run, they ascend, wheel and head back the other way, crop-duster style.
 I switched my shutter to the machine-gun setting and fired away.  By the time the skimmers departed, I had 150 frames or so and a few of them were fairly decent.