ML258756391
Contributor
Date
Location
- Age and sex
- Juvenile, Unknown sex - 1
Observation details
Scanning distant tern flock from South Guide levee, I almost passed over a prostrate bird that I thought at first was a dead tern, but with BLSK on my mind from a bird in EBR 2 days ago, I wondered if it might be a resting skimmer. So, I watched for awhile until it moved. I still could only see that it was a long tern-like bird with neck on ground, and if a skimmer, not an adult. After several minutes, it actually stood up to reveal the ridiculous bill, and I could make out some dull red at the base of a deep, blackish bill with elongated lower mandible. There was some dark on the crown, the back was mottled, and the black primaries were conspicuously long. Then it raised its wings, and I reached for the camera to try to get some sort of image. When I got the camera on the spot, no bird, as then confirmed by scope. It had departed, and I could not find it in the air. I waited for perhaps 20 minutes in hopes that it would return. A couple of hours later, I approached the same CATE/FOTE/BLTE roosting flock and got a distant silhouette look at the skimmer just before it scuttled behind a term. So, I drove back to the original spot and tried to see if I could find it. I think I did -- see awful image of sleeping bird that looks good for skimmer in having those long, upward-arching primaries. See video frame below. It was getting darker with approach of thunderstorm, which arrived and then occluded the bird.
Technical information
- Dimensions
- 500 pixels x 485 pixels
- Original file size
- 39.66 KB