{"id":6095,"date":"2012-09-11T07:11:27","date_gmt":"2012-09-11T13:11:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=6095"},"modified":"2025-09-18T14:20:49","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T19:20:49","slug":"resting-black-skimmer-juvenile-my-banner-image","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/09\/11\/resting-black-skimmer-juvenile-my-banner-image\/","title":{"rendered":"Resting Black Skimmer Juvenile – My Banner Image"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"RelaxedResting Black Skimmer juvenile – Nikon D200, handheld, f7.1, 1\/640, ISO 160, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 330mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Several people have remarked on how much they like the resting Black Skimmer juvenile image that is<\/del> was<\/em> in my rotating banner at the top of this blog so I thought I would post it to show the whole bird.<\/p>\n

Composition is always a challenge when photographing skimmers because their bodies are so long so I went with a pano crop for this one.<\/p>\n

I saw this resting juvenile at Fort De Soto’s north beach and laid down in the sand quite a way from it then slowly sand crawled forward so I wouldn’t disturb the youngster or upset its parents.<\/p>\n

When I say slowly I mean about 10 – 15 minutes of inching forward as low to the sand as I could get. I try to never get so close that I bother the birds, especially with chicks.<\/p>\n

When I finished photographing the chick I did a backwards sand crawl and left them in peace.<\/p>\n

The immature Black Skimmer<\/span><\/a> seemed so comfortable with my low profile that it fell asleep and only got up when the adults came in to feed it.<\/p>\n

I felt very privileged to photograph this bird. I am not sure my images do its beauty justice.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Black Skimmer photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Several people have remarked on how much they like the resting Black Skimmer juvenile image that was in my rotating banner at the top of this blog so I thought I would post it to show the whole bird. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":133300,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,253,25,704,2000,43],"tags":[4039,3990,4134,5229,14752,4077,4067,4071,5119,4156,4211,4017,4697,5117,2315],"class_list":["post-6095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-black-skimmers","category-florida","category-fort-de-soto-county-park","category-pinellas-county-florida","category-wildlife-ethics","tag-beach","tag-black-skimmer","tag-chick","tag-coast","tag-coastal-island","tag-gulf-of-mexico","tag-immature","tag-juvenile","tag-relaxed","tag-resting","tag-rynchops-niger","tag-sand","tag-skimmer","tag-skimmers","tag-summer-3"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/black-skimmer-chick-resting-mia-mcpherson-6713.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-1Aj","jetpack_sharing_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2840,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2011\/07\/31\/black-skimmers-down-and-dirty\/","url_meta":{"origin":6095,"position":0},"title":"Black Skimmers – Down And Dirty","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"July 31, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"My friends say when my images have such a low angle that I must have been \"Down 'n dirty\". Well I know for sure I was dirty, I had sand everywhere!","rel":"","context":"In "Bird ID"","block_context":{"text":"Bird ID","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/bird-identification\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Juvenile and adult Black Skimmers on the beach at Fort De Soto County Park, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/black-skimmers-juvenile-adult-mia-mcpherson-6738.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/black-skimmers-juvenile-adult-mia-mcpherson-6738.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/black-skimmers-juvenile-adult-mia-mcpherson-6738.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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Areas","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"July 2, 2015","format":"chat","excerpt":"On an extremely hot April day I was out on Egmont Key for a Florida Master Naturalist class and from a distance I thought I saw some Black Skimmers and Least Terns resting on a beach but they turned out to be decoys.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Least Tern looking for breakfast at Fort De Soto County Park in Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/least-tern-flight-mia-mcpherson-1451.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/least-tern-flight-mia-mcpherson-1451.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I could always tell when a flock of Black Skimmers were flying in to Fort De Soto's north beach when I was photographing there because I could usually hear their soft, nasal barking yips or yeps before I saw them.","rel":"","context":"In "Black Skimmers"","block_context":{"text":"Black Skimmers","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/terns-and-skimmers\/black-skimmers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Adult Black Skimmer in flight over the Gulf on Mexico, photographed at the north beach of Fort De Soto County Park, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/black-skimmer-mia-mcpherson-adult-flight-8868.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/black-skimmer-mia-mcpherson-adult-flight-8868.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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