I had intended the water here to be white allowing the bird to be almost a silhouette.
Somehow a silver look slipped in, I went with it.
Stilt, Black And White
Category Archives: Shore Bird
Skimmer With Decent Light, Finally
It took about 5 miles and later in the day to catch some Black Simmers in clear water with sun light. Which should not have been that hard in South Carolina.
I went from full out marshland to old rice fields. Also the birds broke rules and were feeding mid day, not in the morning. Things worked out well.
Now the Black Skimmers are in a place a little more photographer friendly. Well, there’s the Alligators who love clean rice fields too. But the Skimmers are OK with it, so I am too.
Slipping By, Skimmer
A Black Skimmer working the surface in an old rice field.
I don’t remember ever seeing them in this marsh before. It tells me just how many of them are around now.
Roseate Spoonbills And Friends
A decent size group of Spoonbills, better yet they were spaced just right for a wide image.
A Great Egret and Black-necked Stilt in the background added even more to the shot.
Dozens Of Black Skimmers
I’ve never had an opportunity with Skimmers like this morning last week. It was hard to know where to focus, especially since they were all at top speed.
Above, the Skimmers were fishing in large groups flying down the center of the pooling marsh waters.
Keeping focus was made even more difficult since they were spraying water all around and over each other.
The fish being caught were small but there was a large number. They all seemed to be catching one at some point.
What was just as amazing was we moved on to several other areas, each had flocks of Skimmers.
ACE Basin, South Carolina.
Portrait, Black-necked Stilt
Stilts are shy birds, not one to stand around photographers.
And yet…
Tormenting The Gators, Skimmers
Buzzing all around and over them at full speed.
It would take a lot of luck to grab one going by.
They never even tried.
If you look close you can see multiple others heads floating in the background.
Black Skimmers and Alligators.
Skimmers
A few shots taken as Black Skimmers worked a marsh pool near me.
These photographs were at the far end of the shallows. I had the idea of getting the Skimmers as they did their wide turns to make another pass over the surface.
The last two shots I finally was getting the flight directions right. This bird also had a small fish.
I discovered my best option was to keep a little more distance between me and the waters edge. These birds are much too fast.
Shooting wider, which requires more space, is the only way to keep up with them. I think a 100-400 would have been a better lens choice too. A bigger lens is like swinging around a couch 🤣🤣 LOL. You can’t do it for very long (if at all).