NATURALIST'S 



NOTEBOOK 



along the surf line as if trying to avoid 

 getting wet. Actually, it is looking for small 

 animals buried in the sand that rush to the 

 surface when an incoming wave passes and 

 burrow when the wave recedes. 



The tiny bird gobbles up the most 

 lilliputian of waterfront meals — beach 

 fleas, shrimp and small marine worms — 

 by rapidly poking the wet sand of the swash 

 zone, the area of beach between the high 

 and low tide lines. 



As you can imagine, eating tiny 

 invertebrates requires less beak strength and 



more needle-nosed 

 precision for tweezing 

 prey from among the 

 loose sand grains. For 

 its hunt-and-peck 

 method and specialized 

 diet, the sanderling's 

 sharp, tapered bill is 

 ideal. 



While the 

 sanderling could be 

 called hunter-gatherer 

 of the surf, the black 

 skimmer could be 

 dubbed plow of the sea, 

 resembling an agrarian tiller as it rakes the 

 water's surface. 



If you've spotted this elegant bird with 

 its ebony upper body and white underbelly, 

 you're fortunate. It is active mostly at night. 

 Its bill is orange closest to its head and 

 darkens to black from the midline of the 

 beak to its tip. The upper and lower 

 mandibles are compressed laterally into 

 scissorlike blades, a key to the black 

 skimmer's bizarre method of fishing. 



The black skimmer harvests shrimp 

 and small fish by skimming just above die 



Black skimmer 



surface of the water with its mouth 

 agape and its sharp lower mandible 

 actually submerged. Much like a pair 

 of shears, it slices along until a small 

 fish, shrimp or other crustacean 

 bumps into its open beak. At that 

 moment, the upper jaw reflexively 

 clamps shut upon its prey. 



The skimmer doesn't target a 

 particular prey as most shorebirds 

 do. Instead, it routinely plows an area 

 of water, often over and over since 

 vibrations of its earlier runs attract 

 other fish. 



Some other fish eaters such as 

 the great blue heron have long, 

 pointed bills to stab their prey 

 beneath shallow water or to simply 

 snatch and swallow. The white ibis 

 eats small crabs or crayfish by 

 Sanderling extracting them from their burrows. 



Whatever its peculiar shape and 

 size, the beak determines the very survival 

 of a beach bird. Flat, skinny, pointed, 

 stumpy or slender — in many ways, the 

 beak is what it eats. □ 



• How Birds Make a Living on the 

 Coast is a poster about birds and their bilb. 

 Send a $3 check payable to University of 

 Georgia to Marine Extension Service, 30 

 Ocean Science Circle, Savannah, GA 31411- 

 1011. 



• Birds and Mammals of the Cape 

 Hatteras National Seashore inventories 

 birds and mammals in this national park 

 and discusses the changes that time has 

 brought for them. Send a $7 check payable 

 to N.C. Sea Grant to Sea Grant, Box 8605, 

 NC State University, Raleigh, NC 27695- 

 8605. Ask for UNC-SG-92-01. 



• 1993 Atlas of Colonial Waterbirds 

 of North Carolina Estuaries describes 23 

 colonial waterbirds, detaib their breeding 

 biology and nesting habits, and includes 

 regional maps of colony sites. Send a $5 

 check payable to N.C. Sea Grant to Sea 

 Grant, Box 8605, NC State Universit\', 

 Raleigh, NC 27695-8605. Ask for UNC- 

 SG-95-02. 



COASTWATCH 31 



