It’s time for the latest installment of black skimmer bingo! As the skimmers arrive back on their natal grounds, our shorebird staffers jump at the chance to go out and resight bands. Each spring/summer, there are familiar birds we see every year and young ones returning for the first time, confirming that they’ve survived the arduous migration to and from their wintering grounds. For each of these special banded skimmers, it feels to us like we are welcoming back old friends who we’ve known since chicks.
Since 2017, in collaboration with MassWildlife, The Trustees of Reservations, and the Town of Edgartown, we’ve banded 68 skimmers. And we've resighted nearly a quarter of them already this season (16/68)! Not every one of these re-sights is the same, however. Over the years we’ve noticed different patterns of observations. Some skimmers we resight every year. We know a lot about their lives, and each new observation adds chapters to that story. Then there are other skimmers that we’ve only seen one or twice since their hatch year. For these birds, each new re-sight is exciting proof of continued survival. In the following paragraphs, I’ve grouped the skimmers we’ve resighted this summer into these types of categories and included some of the information we’ve learned about each bird from past re-sights.
A8, photographed here on Cumberland Island, Georgia, was part of the innagural banding class in 2017 and has been returning to nest on Martha's Vineyard since 2019. Photo: Pat Leary
J7, photographed here in Key West, Florida, has been resighted 54 times, more than any other skimmer banded on Martha's Vineyard. Photo: Ingrid Siegert
The Old and Familiar
These birds were all part of our earlier banding classes and return annually to nest on Martha’s Vineyard. For many of them, we know their sex and where they spend their winters, too!
A7 - Banded in 2017 as part of the inaugural banding class of chicks, A7 has returned to breed on Martha’s Vineyard every year since 2019. Little is known about where this bird spends its winters, though, since the only re-sight reported away from Martha’s Vineyard was during migration on Cape May Beach, New Jersey, on 10/14/18.
A8 - Banded in 2017 in the same class as A7, A8 has also returned to breed on Martha’s Vineyard every year since 2019. We know that A8 winters in Jacksonville, Florida, as this bird has been seen there regularly since 2017.
E5 - Banded in 2018, E5 has returned to breed on Martha’s Vineyard every year since 2020 and regularly migrates from Martha’s Vineyard to winter on beaches near Jacksonville, Florida.
J7 - Banded in 2018, banded in the same class as E5, J7 has been resighted 54 times, more than any other skimmer we’ve banded. We determined she was female from the picture above, sent to us by Ingrid Siegert in 2025 where you can see her dainty bill and small size compared to the male next to her. Thanks to the multitude of re-sights from the wintering grounds, we’ve been able to track this bird’s winter movements better than those any of our other skimmers. J7 spends her winters at Mallory Square in Key West but likes to make stops at the beaches near Jacksonville and Naples on her way down. She has returned to Martha’s Vineyard every year since hatching, and this spring traveled from Key West to Edgartown 73 days.
L5, photographed here in Ninigret, Rhode Island, was banded in 2022 and has already been resighted 25 times, more than any bird banded on Martha's Vineyard since 2020. Photo: eBird user PCarl
A7 on banding day as a chick.
Kayla and Rich banding N0 as a fledgling in 2023. Since then, this bird has been seen in North Carolina, Florida, and now back on Martha's Vineyard.
The Young and Familiar
These birds were all hatched and banded since 2022 but have already been resighted multiple times both on and off the island.
L2 - Banded in 2022, L2 has returned to Martha’s Vineyard every year since 2024 and has been seen once off the Vineyard, overwintering on Melbourne Beach, Florida, in 2022
L5 - Banded in 2022, L5 has already been resighted 25 times. It has returned to Martha’s Vineyard every year since hatching and is regularly seen overwintering on beaches near Jacksonville, Florida.
L6 - Banded in 2022, L6 has also been regularly seen nesting on Martha’s Vineyard and overwintering near Jacksonville, Florida, but has also been seen twice on Kiawah Island in South Carolina during fall migration.
L9 - Banded in 2023, L9 returned to Martha’s Vineyard for the first time last summer.
N0 - Banded in 2023, N0 has already had a well documented life, being resighted 20 times in the last three years. N0 returned to Martha’s Vineyard for the first time last year but has been seen multiple times in North Carolina during fall migration and during the winter near Jacksonville, Florida.
E3 and E7, photographed here overwintering near Jacksonville, Forida, in 2021, have both been seen nesting with other birds banded on Martha's Vineyard. By comparing their body and beak size to their mates, we know that both of these birds are males. Photo: Brett Moyer
The Love Birds
These were birds that have mated/nested together at least once.
A9 - Banded in 2017 as part of our inaugural banding class, A9 has returned to breed on Martha’s Vineyard most years but in 2022 was seen in a breeding colony in New York, where it nested with E3. During this breeding season, A9 and E3 were captured together and it was noted that A9 was the female.
E3 - Banded in 2018, E3 was one of the more exciting re-sights we’ve had so far this year. We’ve learned a lot about this bird from other observers. As previously mentioned, E3 nested with A9 in a breeding colony in New York in 2022 and was identified as the male in that pair. E3 has also been seen regularly overwintering near Jacksonville, Florida, but until this summer BiodiversityWorks staff had not seen this bird on Martha’s Vineyard since 2021.
E7 - Banded in 2018, E7 has been resighted 48 different times, the second most of all the skimmers we’ve banded. He regularly migrates from Martha’s Vineyard to beaches near Jacksonville, Florida, and has been seen in both locations every year since 2019. Despite the high volume of observations, it wasn’t until last year that we learned E7 is a male; Liz Olson noted the size difference between E7 and his mate J0.
J0 - Banded in 2020, J0 has returned to Martha’s Vineyard every year since she hatched. She nested with E7 last year, when we learned she is a female. She was resighted twice in January 2022 overwintering in Naples, Florida.
The Introverts
These birds have all gone long stretches (>1 year) without being resighted. While little is known about the rest of their lives, we are always excited by re-sights confirming that these birds are still alive.
K5 - Banded in 2020, K5 was seen on Martha’s Vineyard for the first time since then on June 4th, 2026. In fact, this was the first observation of K5 in more than two years. It was last observed overwintering in Key West in 2024.
L0 - Banded in 2023, L0 was another bird that went undetected for multiple years. There had been no reported sightings of L0 since it fledged until this year. We call this Liz’s bird because it almost shares her initials (LO).
So what's going on in Jacksonville, Florida?
As I’m sure you have noticed, many of the birds we’ve resighted so far this summer have also been resighted overwintering near Jacksonville, Florida. This mainly refers to two beaches, Amelia Island and Huguenot Memorial Park, where skimmers from all along the Atlantic Coast spend their winters. This is also an area where a lot of birdwatchers spend their winters, boosting the odds of re-sights. A popular facebook group called Florida Banded Bird Resights lets many birders and community scientists share their observations. One of these observers, Brett Moyer, has synthesized his years of observations at these sites into a recent publication, if you’d like to learn more about how skimmers from many Atlantic coast states gather together to winter near Jacksonville.
