These black skimmers were swarming and swirling about the shoreline at Ft Desoto beach on one fine evening.  Normally you might see them in groups of a dozen or too, but this groups at Ft Desoto was so massive this photo only caught about 1/3rd of them.

Black skimmers are truly a unique looking bird.  The have a special beak that allows them to feed by flying quickly along the surface of the water latching onto any small fish they encounter.  Doesn’t seem like a very efficient method to me, but it sure seems to work for them.