Sebastian Inlet

I had an appointment up in Brevard this morning, decided to stop at the inlet on my way home. I took the pix for our annual holiday card. I also got some shots of other birds:

A Caspian and a Royal tern. Notice the beak shape and color differences.

Now this was about the weirdest thing I've ever seen. This one Skimmer just flopped down on his tummy on the beach. I thought he was dying...

Then another did the same thing...

 Then another...

At this point I called David to see if I should call Fish and Wildlife. He said that he doesn't know why, but sometimes Skimmers just lie on their tummies with their heads on the ground. They aren't sick or anything, they just do this now and then.

This is a cool picture as it helps ID similar birds. The ones with more black are the Black Skimmers. The ones with male pattern baldness and a yellow-orange beak are Royal Terns. The ones with the red-orange beak and male pattern baldness are Caspian Terns. The ones with the black eyes are Foresters Terns.

One good tern deserves another...

I liked this guy, he looked like he was staring at his shadow contemplating his own mortality in a very dramatic fashion.