New Video: Juvenile Black Skimmers Practicing Skimming

What’s Up?

My surgery went well. I am healing nicely at younger daughter Alissa’s home in Ronkonkoma in Suffolk County, Long Island. The best news is that the tingling pain that came and went in the first four fingers of my right hand is pretty much gone. And, I have not had to take any oxycodone. If all continues to go well as we expect, I will have my stitches taken out on 3 September, drive to Lorton, VA on the 4th, and be headed south on the Auto Train that same evening. I should be back home at ILE just after lunch on the 5th.

Today is Friday 23 August 2024. After publishing the new YouTube video and this post, I will begin work on an article for the new Bird Watcher’s Digest (BWD) Magazine; the working title is Shifting Sands; Bird Photography at Fort DeSoto County Park. Wherever you are and whatever you are doing, I hope that you too choose to have a great day.

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The Second Edit — Two Afternoons of Young Skimmers Skimming

On my recent month-long Nickerson Beach (Lido Beach, Long Island, NY) visit, we had two excellent afternoons with decent light and the wind from the WSW. Those conditions had the young Black Skimmers practicing skimming mostly right at us. Sit beside me as I select my second edit keepers as I explain the various factors that helped me decide to tag or delete each image. I kept 27 out of 48 (21 deleted) from the first session and 22 out of 41 (19 deleted) from the afternoon of 11 August. If you like flight photography, you will learn a ton.

The 89 first round keepers had previously been selected from two afternoon folders totaling more than 5,000 images. Do understand that each of the 40 images deleted after the second round of editing (Untagged > Command A — select all, > Command Delete in Photo Mechanic), and another 2000 or so deleted after the first edit, would have thrilled me as recently as five years ago. Why? Flight photography technology has improved drastically with the advent of high end mirrorless camera bodies. Right now, the science-fiction-like autofocus that I had dreamed of for so long is pretty much a reality.

On the first afternoon I used the a1. The next day, I went with the a9 iii. Below are my three favorites from the 49 keepers. I find it a bit strange that all were made at 420mm (300mm f/2.8 + 1.4X TC) rather than at 600mm (300mm f/2.8 + 2X TC).

This image was created on 10 August 2024 at Nickerson Beach Park, Lido Beach, Long Island, NY. Seated on damp sand, I used the hand held Sony FE 300mm f/2.8 GM OSS lens (Sony E) with the Sony FE 1.4x Teleconverter and The One, the Sony a1 Mirrorless Camera. The exposure was determined using Zebra technology with ISO on the Thumb Dial. ISO 4000. 1/3200 second at f/4 (wide open) in Manual Mode. AWB at 7:28:14pm on a sunny afternoon. RawDigger showed the raw file brightness to be dead solid perfect. Zone AF-C AF with Bird Face/Eye Detection performed perfectly. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy a high-res version. Image #1: Black Skimmer juvenile flying with seaweed

Practice Skimming

Though I have been watching young Black Skimmers skim near the shore at Nickerson Beach in August for more than two decades, I have never once seen one catch a fish. They will often pick up bits of grass, seaweed, or small sticks while skimming, but never a fish. They will skim in shallow puddles, and even skim the sand on occasion. It seems obvious to me that they are simply practicing skimming. Most will likely catch their first fish either on very calm mornings or by visiting and fishing nearby sheltered bays.

This image was created on 11 August 2024 at Nickerson Beach Park, Lido Beach, Long Island, NY. Seated on damp sand, I used the hand held Sony FE 300mm f/2.8 GM OSS lens (Sony E) with the Sony FE 1.4x Teleconverter and the ridiculously amazing Sony a9 III Mirrorless Camera. The exposure was determined using Zebra technology with ISO on the Thumb Dial. ISO 1600. 1/4000 second at f/4 (wide open) in Manual Mode. AWB at 7:20:02pm on a barely sunny afternoon. RawDigger showed the raw file brightness to be dead solid perfect. Zone AF-C AF with Bird Face/Eye Detection performed perfectly. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy a high-res version. Image #2: Black Skimmer juvenile practice skimming with bill in foamy water

A9 iii AF

With most of the a9 iii images, as expected, Bird Face-Eye AF grabbed and tracked the young skimmer’s eye more consistently than the a1 did. Nonetheless, all of the a1 keepers were sharp on the eye despite the fact that with some of the images, a7 INFO showed the AF point on the bird’s wing or on the background. A possible explanation is that the recording of the active AF point or points on the a1 is not quite fast enough to keep up with the AF technology, not as fast as the recording capabilities of the a9 iii. Sharp a1 images will always offer superior quality when compared to sharp a9 iii images, and the a9 iii will always offer those shooting at 60 or 120 fps more wing positions and flight poses. Take your pick.

This image was also created on 11 August 2024 at Nickerson Beach Park, Lido Beach, Long Island, NY. Seated on damp sand, I again used the hand held Sony FE 300mm f/2.8 GM OSS lens (Sony E) with the Sony FE 1.4x Teleconverter and the ridiculously amazing Sony a9 III Mirrorless Camera. The exposure was determined using Zebra technology with ISO on the Thumb Dial. ISO 6400. 1/3200 second at f/4 (wide open) in Manual Mode. AWB at 7:32:14pm on then cloudy afternoon. RawDigger showed the raw file brightness to be dead solid perfect. Zone AF-C AF with Bird Face/Eye Detection performed perfectly. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy a high-res version. Image #3: Black Skimmer juvenile practice skimming leaving wake

Your Call?

Which of today’s three featured images is your favorite? Why?

Typos

With all blog posts, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors.