. Coast watch. Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology. 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
. Coast watch. Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology. 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 t
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookcollectionunclibra, booksubjectoceanography
