Nesting Black Skimmers at Indian Shores, Florida

There is a very nice nesting zone for Black Skimmers along the Indian Shores beach in Florida. If you want to have the best chances photographing Black Skimmers skimming in the water this is the place!! Also, time your visit right and you will be delighted creating photographs of Skimmers with their young chicks.

The Black Skimmer photograph above was created at India Shores, Florida in the early morning. The Black Skimmers nest in a small colony straight at ground level in the sand depression. Individuals frequently come in and out to skim, stretch and bath. A small group detached itself from the colony for a few minutes with many of the birds preening for a bit. Skimmers are actually difficult to photograph properly while in a small flock because they tend to stay huddled very close together. Keep an eagle eye for the edges and you might get an opportunity as above. I decided to keep the left bird in the frame and not to Photoshop it out as I thought it gave a better story. 🙂

Now when most people think about Skimmers, they think about the bird skimming the water surface in quest of food. The birds really like shallow areas where the fish cannot go too deep hence avoiding the long lower part beak of the bird. In fact, you might be shocked to see that many birds skim right to the edge of the shore. My advice for this type of photography is to select frames where the bird has its wings up and where you do not have waves crashing in the background. It might take a few tries before getting there…

This an opportunity often missed! Arrive early, before sunrise if possible and work on artistic blurs. Results can be quite surprising with a good technique.

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Steven