From the archives, a shot of some locals.
I actually visited some of these critters today but the media library on this site still needs work. Love this shot and found it a little while ago so decided to publish it.

I’m not sure I can describe where this Heron is standing. It’s a salt marsh, in a well hidden cut. Between the solid land and this bird is a series of small dry hummocks with brush and trees.
To get this shot you need to cross a thin raised trail to a tiny island. A jungle kind of look and feel…water had better be low.
Great Blue Herons love to stand on the stumps here. I can see them, never a clean shot though.
Anyway, the other day he was there, things looked dry and safe. I went for it.
Is it a great shot, amazingly different… no. In fact, the one I saw in my head was better.
Basically a boring story embellished because I wanted this image LOL.
I don’t get the opportunity for a shot like this often. It was a good day for Skimmers, not to say I didn’t miss a large number.
As the day went on the light was better and we were able to find the best locations.
When Skimmers are seriously fishing they tend to travel around in big circles, moving between open water. This means you can get an idea of where they will be when they circle back around.
Sometimes you guess right.
For a number of days large flocks of Black Skimmers worked the same marshes all around the ACE Basin wildlife areas. The first day I went along, another day Ellen was shooting also. Once or twice a ranger truck came by but for the most part we had thousands of acres all to ourselves.
This place is a high spot near one of the big trunks in the marsh. At any given time one of the locals is sunning.
The big guy never turned while I was there. I checked a few times.
Others came and went though.
Can’t have a day in the ‘hinterlands’ without a few gator shots.