Nesting Black Skimmers in Sarasota, Florida

There is a large size Black Skimmer nesting area in South West Sarasota, along the Florida Gulf. I had the chance to take a peek during this Summer and bird photography opportunities were quite good. The nesting season lasts about a couple of months, starting in June.

The advantage of creating images close to a nesting area is to catch some of the birds flying in and flying out, maximizing your chances for bird in flight photography. As in the above, you might even compile flight, great wing position and prey in the beak altogether! 🙂 The birds stay close to fish and feed the youngs with fresh catch.

Plus, the young chicks are always very cute subjects. It is always nice to create a nice family portrait. If you want to have both birds in focus while using a long lens, you would want to have both birds parallel to you and in the same focus zone. Since long focal lenses will narrow the depth of field, it will be very difficult to have a sharp focus on both subjects if one bird is standing closer to you.

Note that Black Skimmers have a longer lower mandible. This is how they can fly low and skim over the water surface. They simply clap their beak once the lower mandible feels a prey and voila!

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Steven

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