At least somebody here isn't blindfolded

©2013 Lydia Hinshaw

Standing out in a crowd

 TITUSVILLE, FL -- Our happy days of photographing the eagles' nest have come to an end.  Someone in authority has roped off most of the public park surrounding the tree, to keep the overzealous from disturbing the birds.  Fair enough.
 We can still see the eagles through binocs, and the youngsters are almost as big as their parents now.  We haven't seen them fly yet, though.
 Saturday we headed south to the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, tempted by a forecast of clear weather.  Unfortunately, we got a daylong, high overcast instead.  The light was lousy.
 Last time we were here, we had fun shooting action of black skimmers zooming along with their lower bills in the water, scooping up seafood tidbits.  This trip, an afternoon wind grounded a hundred or more skimmers in a parking lot, where they all patiently faced into the wind.
 In the picture above, part of the flock demonstrates tolerance for a seagull, who is in possession of the only visible eye in the picture.
 Skimmers only look blindfolded.  Their black eyes are concealed by their black skullcaps.