I forgot to include seeing this individual today in my earlier post. It is an adult bird that appears healthy, while at rest, and it can fly (observed short one over channel)...but how does it feed successfully? It's lower mandible just hangs straight down, with a very noticeable gap between it and the upper mandible. The BLSK was loosely bound to a small flock of ~ 6 other skimmers but I never saw the bird attempting to feed. It almost looks like during a feeding foray, with it's lower mandible in the water, it hit an immovable object, which caused it's "jaw" to become dislocated. Has anyone seen this bird previously - it would be interesting to learn how long it has lived with this handicap ? Any future sightings could also provide similar information. Cheers,Bob --
NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
