photoartflightBlack Skimmer FlyBys & Skimming @ Brigantine Division
Posted on June 17, 2022
A series of images of Black Skimmers flying and skimming from previous trips to the Brigantine Division of the Edwin B. Forsythe NWR in Oceanville, NJ. The Featured image was taken with a Canon 1D mkIV with a 400mm DO lens & 1.4x Teleconverter
Black Skimmer Skimming At Brigantine
Posted on May 19, 2022
A series of images of a Black Skimmer feeding as it was skimming through the water in one of the channels along the Wildlife Drive at the Brigantine Division of the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, Brigantine Division. It seems like it also had a damaged feather on one wing. All images were taken with a Canon 1D mkIV with a 400mm DO lens & 1.4X Teleconverter.
Black Skimmers At Brigantine
Posted on July 28, 2019
More Black Skimmers fishing at the Brigantine Division of the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in Oceanville New Jersey. These were photographed @ 600mm with the Tamron 150 – 600mm lens on a Canon R. They are cropped in a little to concentrate on the Skimmer.
Wider View of Black Skimmer fishing
More Black Skimmers From Brigantine
Posted on July 3, 2019
It is fun to watch Black Skimmers working in pairs. While we were at the Brigantine Division of the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge we noticed this pair of Black Skimmers working this area along the Wildlife Drive. They kept flying across the main channel of water along the Drive, then turning into a perpendicular channel flying away from us. Then they would return and repeat their flight path, skimming along the water as they flew by. It is fun to photograph them when you have fairly smooth water to see their paths behind them to visually see the arcing paths they take while fishing in tandem.
Black Skimmers banking to return for another pass
Black Skimmers @ 600mm
Returning Skimmers crossing paths
Black Skimmers changing direction
Black Skimmers At Brigantine
Posted on July 1, 2019
Black Skimmers are some of my favorite birds to photograph as they are fishing and skimming along the water. This group was working an area in the channel along the Wildlife Drive near the entrance to the Wildlife Drive at the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, Brigantine Division.ย I was shooting @ 600mm, but they were covering a large area, going down one of the channels moving away from me, then turning around coming back to me and going to the right. Then they would repeat their pattern. Time after time fishing the channels and then swinging around to skim along the other direction. There were 2 groups of 2 fishing there. In another post I will show images of the 2 skimming together.
I was using a Canon R with a Tamron 150-600mm lens and was surprised the Canon R tracked them so well. I even tried a few with a 2x teleconverter and still auto-focused well.
Black Skimmers FlyBy
Posted on September 6, 2018
A group of Black Skimmers flying by, heading to another area at the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in Oceanville NJ. They were working an area farther out in the water when they changed direction and flew by me. They are fun to photograph when they go back and forth fishing an area, with their lower mandible streaking through the water. But this small group was just moving on to fish further out.
Black Skimmers In Flight Panorama
Posted on May 28, 2017
When we were at the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge a week ago, I tried some in-flight panoramas of the Black Skimmers. I was wondereing if it was possible to shoot a burst of images and pan at the same time. It works, but helps if you have some details in the background that PhotoShop can align the images to, instead of just Blue sky. It is a little harder if they are coming at you. It also helps, because of panning while shooting, to use a fairly high shutter speed. A panning gimbal head on a tripod would be good also, but I was handholding the camera for this series. The featured image was 5 shots, brought into Photoshop, automatically aligning the 5 shots and blending them. The more panos you try, the better they seem to come out. I could get large flocks of birds with a wide lens, but I like the challenge, plus I do not want a lot of extra background top and bottom. Also I tend to print images quite large. I will probably clone out the water tower and buildings later.
Another panorama from the same day, a different flock of Black Skimmers in the water. (With a few gulls in the background)
Black Skimmers and Gulls 6 Shot, overlapping images, panorama, @400mm
Black Skimmer Fishing
Posted on May 25, 2017
When we were at the Brigantine Division of the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in Oceanville, NJ last weekend, the weather did not cooperate with us. It was a very gray day and extremely windy. It was difficult to even open the car doors to get out. There were very few birds flying and those that did were just blown all over. There were Ospreys in all the nests along the Wildlife Drive, but only saw 1 flying very high in the air. There were large groups of Black Skimmers, mostly on the ground, but a few groups took off but were blown all over. I shot a few large groups of Skimmers on the ground also, for a few series of multi-image panoramas. On the way out of the Refuge, I noticed this one lone Black Skimmer fishing close to shore, skimming along. It was still very gray and overcast, but I got a series of shots of the Skimmer as it kept getting closer to us. They show the fishing technique of the Skimmer and how it got its name. When it thinks it has caught something the head bends down and it clamps down on the lower mandible to catch its meal. Many times it is just some debris in the water. It did not catch anything in that pass and it flew off, but it was fun to see.
Black Skimmer Skimming Along
Posted on July 21, 2016
We went to the Brigantine Division of the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in Oceanville, NJ. We were hoping to see the usual Herons & Egrets, Ospreys, Hopefully Bald Eagles, Harriers,Oyster Catchers, etc. There are also Black Skimmers but usually they seem to be quite far out when they are skimming along feeding. I was photographing some Great Egrets when 2 Black Skimmers flew by feeding close to shore. They went back and forth a couple of times before moving on. Here are 2 from the series.
More Black Skimmers From Brigantine
Posted on September 8, 2014
I got a chance to go over more files from our last visit to the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, Brigantine Division, in Oceanville, NJ. On our last visit we had the opportunity to photograph lots of Black Skimmers, fairly close by.
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