Two decades or so ago, I drove from Athens, Ga. to New Orleans, and the one part of that drive that I remember best was a stretch of US Highway 90 along the coast of Missisippi. West of Biloxi, the highway parallels the beach, and I remembered big flocks of black skimmers, striking and improbable birds, lounging on the white sand and cruising low over the gentle waves of the Gulf.
So when we planned to visit Jessica's cousin in Pass Christian, I had my heart set on seeing black skimmers again. And I got my wish—in fact, I got close to a flock of skimmers (mixed in with laughing gulls, ring-billed gulls, royal terns, and Forster's terns) and happily snapped pictures while Jessa and her sister got snowballs from a stand on the beach.
Later, when we spotted a second flock of skimmers (again mixed with other species), I suggested that Jessa take the camera this time. But I forgot to tell her what a napping black skimmer looks like.
"Often rests with head stretched forward on the ground" is how The Sibley Guide to Birds puts it. "Oh God, it's dead!" is how Jessa perceived it when she spotted her first skimmer prone on the sand. And then another, then two or three more, an apparent mass die-off in progress, an epidemic of some horribly lethal plague stalking the flock. Until a couple of the "dead" birds opened their eyes, got to their feet, and shuffled through the sand to rejoin their comrades.
She felt much better after that.
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Bonus photos (by both Mark & Jessica):
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