Skimming

A flock of black skimmers on the beach at Grand Isle State Park, Louisiana

The first time I saw a black skimmer was on Pensacola Beach, Florida. It was a rainy day and cool so there were few people on the beach. Skimmers were fishing in the shallow waves on the shore by dipping their lower bill in the water as they were flying. It was an amazing sight to see them singly, or in groups of three or more, flying right past us in what I deduced was a feat of aeronautic self-control. Some of the birds were successful in catching bait fish and I watched them bring their catch back to offspring on the shore. 

With a large, stunningly-colored bill, they are obviously well-adapted to feeding this way. The bill seems disproportionately large for the size of their head. It seems that such a large bill does not come without a price. According to The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, skimmers can be found resting their head and bill upon the sand, "probably to keep cool and to give their neck muscles a break from supporting their large bills."

When I saw skimmers again at Grand Isle State Park in Louisiana they weren't foraging but flocking on the beach and occasionally taking flight. Up, circle back, land. Sometimes their flight was triggered by a passerby. But, in other cases, the stimulus for their departure was not obvious, at least to me. I found myself asking, "Why did they fly?" 

In much the same way, I imagine people wondering why I left Hawai'i, a good-paying job with a stable future. Certainly, people in my profession think I was crazy to do so. But, they don't know what signals/pressures I was receiving either internally or externally to take flight. What was perceptible to me was not perceived by them. They did not experience what I experienced. 

With the skimmers, I can sit on the beach and watch them until I figure out what stimulates their flight only to resettle back on the beach. Or, I can just accept that they needed to fly and it isn't important for me to know why. In this case, I don't need to do anything in response to their behavior or experience.  I can accept the skimmers as they are and figure they know what's best for skimmers. I can sit on a beach and watch them forage, roost on the sand, fly and listen to them squawk without trying to understand every nuance of their process, judge the merits of each decision, and question their experience. 

Sometimes it is really hard to be in a place of full-acceptance of another person's truth or even our own.