Scenes from Skimmer Nation

A few (ok a bunch) of images from my visit to the Malibu Beach Wildlife Management Area.

Enjoy!

I'm starting to notice a theme here ...

Yes they are noisy.

"Feed Me!"

"No, Feed Me!"

Only one bird had a band (bird bling must be expensive).

That flying stuff looks fun ...

... I can't wait until these things work!

There's a big world out there ...

... explore!

This sun it hot!

That's better.

Not fooling me.

I Hate When That Happens

Time for a trip to the dry cleaners.

Attack Mode

That Tern on the Half Shell wasn't being cooperative, posing for photographers. No.

That bird did not like me being there.

It would land on the beach directly in front of me. And watch me for a minute or so.

Then it would start screaming and fly straight at me.

It would fly over head making this machine gun like sound as it zoomed by.

It would circle back and the the cycle would begin anew.

Like Father, Like Son

Either that or ...

... junior is just sleepy.

Skimmer Nation ...

... is on the move.

And is coming to a blog near you.

Stay tuned!

Tern on the Half Shell

Literally.

~~~~~~~~~~

There were two obvious areas on the beach. One as seen above littered with shells. And another zone with almost no shells. I figured that it had to do with the tide line and wave action.

I was wrong.

It seems there is a gentleman that visits the beach and collects the shells. He is a good neighbor to the birds and does not collect them from the breeding area. And he is apparently very thorough in his collecting.

Now, you may be wondering what he does with all theses shells. As was I. Well, he takes them home and runs them through a cleaning cycle in his dishwasher. And then he sells them to local restaurants.

Ever enjoy clams casino? Those clam shells have to come from somewhere ...

Bye Bye Birdie ...

My friend Laura, of Somewhere in NJ fame, makes her home in Georgia these days. But for the past two summers the lure of the Jersey Shore has been too strong to resist. So she has gotten a summer gig both years with the NJ Department of Fish and Wildlife. To go to the beach. To look at birds.

Let that sink in a moment.

She gets paid to go to the beach and look at birds. All summer long.

Which she did for free when she lived here in NJ.

Anyways, she invited me down to the Malibu Beach Wildlife Management Area to visit, and photograph, the skimmer and tern colonies she watches. Part of her job is to count the birds, she claims that there are over 1500 skimmers there. She also tries to keep curious (or is that oblivious) humans out of the breeding areas. We were joined this morning by two Rutgers students who had completed a shorebird study earlier this year as part of their studies, which had infected them with the birding bug.

And black skimmers we did see. Including the disappearing chick in this sequence of photos.

The chick is just peaking out from under the bird in the center of the photo. (Remember to click on any photo to bigafy it.)

Going ...

... going ...

... going ...

... gone!

And then mom or dad presumably got hungry, and our hero (the egg shaped item just to the left of center in the image below) was left all alone. Albeit surrounded by many other skimmers and terns.

Skimmers nest on the beach, the "nest" being just a scrape in the sand. Predators are kept at bay by the large number of birds in the colony. But they have no real defense against us lumbering humans. The colony covers a relatively small stretch of beach in a location that wasn't prime for human use. But despite clear and abundant signage and fencing clearly demarcating the off limits breeding area we saw several people wandering into the closed off areas.  

This puts the chicks and eggs in peril, not just from being stepped on (they are well camouflaged and quite difficult to spot) but from flushing all the adult birds away. And while they might not be away for long, it doesn't take long for a gull or a hawk to swoop down and be off with a chick. 

So if you are down the beach this summer and see these signs, stay away. Or better yet get a pair of binoculars and your camera and watch from a safe, for the birds, distance.