{"id":330015,"date":"2026-07-05T16:07:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T16:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/330015\/"},"modified":"2026-07-05T16:07:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T16:07:08","slug":"black-skimmers-nesting-on-sanibel-causeway-for-the-first-time-in-three-decades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/330015\/","title":{"rendered":"Black skimmers nesting on Sanibel Causeway for the first time in three decades"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>July 5, 2026, 9:01 a.m. ET<\/p>\n<p><img class=\"gnt_em_img_i\" src=\"https:\/\/www.news-press.com\/gcdn\/authoring\/authoring-images\/2026\/07\/01\/PFTM\/90776746007-skimmer-dsc-6277.jpg?width=660&amp;height=357&amp;fit=crop&amp;format=pjpg&amp;auto=webp\"  elementtiming=\"pg-lead-image\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Black skimmer chicks are seen with a parent on the Sanibel Causeway on Saturday, June 27, 2026. A group of black skimmers and least terns are nesting on the causeway island.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Black skimmer chicks are seen with a parent on the Sanibel Causeway on Saturday, June 27, 2026. A group of black skimmers and least terns are nesting on the causeway island.<\/p>\n<p>Andrew West\/The News-Press &amp; Naples Daily News \/USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida<img class=\"gnt_em_img_i\" src=\"https:\/\/www.news-press.com\/gcdn\/authoring\/authoring-images\/2026\/07\/01\/PFTM\/90776750007-skim-dsc-6438.jpg?width=660&amp;height=373&amp;fit=crop&amp;format=pjpg&amp;auto=webp\"  loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Black skimmer chicks are seen with a parent on the Sanibel Causeway on Saturday, June 27, 2026. A group of black skimmers and least terns are nesting on the causeway island.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Black skimmer chicks are seen with a parent on the Sanibel Causeway on Saturday, June 27, 2026. A group of black skimmers and least terns are nesting on the causeway island.<\/p>\n<p>Andrew West\/The News-Press &amp; Naples Daily News \/USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida<img class=\"gnt_em_img_i\" src=\"https:\/\/www.news-press.com\/gcdn\/authoring\/authoring-images\/2026\/07\/01\/PFTM\/90776740007-skimmer-dsc-6027.jpg?width=660&amp;height=267&amp;fit=crop&amp;format=pjpg&amp;auto=webp\"  loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Black skimmer chicks are seen with a parent on the Sanibel Causeway on Saturday, June 27, 2026. A group of black skimmers and least terns are nesting on the causeway island.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Black skimmer chicks are seen with a parent on the Sanibel Causeway on Saturday, June 27, 2026. A group of black skimmers and least terns are nesting on the causeway island.<\/p>\n<p>Andrew West\/The News-Press &amp; Naples Daily News \/USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida<img class=\"gnt_em_img_i\" src=\"https:\/\/www.news-press.com\/gcdn\/authoring\/authoring-images\/2026\/07\/01\/PFTM\/90776748007-skimmer-dsc-6184.jpg?width=660&amp;height=365&amp;fit=crop&amp;format=pjpg&amp;auto=webp\"  loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Black skimmer chicks are seen with a parent on the Sanibel Causeway on Saturday, June 27, 2026. A group of black skimmers and least terns are nesting on the causeway island.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Black skimmer chicks are seen with a parent on the Sanibel Causeway on Saturday, June 27, 2026. A group of black skimmers and least terns are nesting on the causeway island.<\/p>\n<p>Andrew West\/The News-Press &amp; Naples Daily News \/USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida<img class=\"gnt_em_img_i\" src=\"https:\/\/www.news-press.com\/gcdn\/authoring\/authoring-images\/2026\/07\/01\/PFTM\/90776741007-skimmer-dsc-6212.jpg?width=660&amp;height=397&amp;fit=crop&amp;format=pjpg&amp;auto=webp\"  loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Black skimmer chicks are seen with a parent on the Sanibel Causeway on Saturday, June 27, 2026. A group of black skimmers and least terns are nesting on the causeway island.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Black skimmer chicks are seen with a parent on the Sanibel Causeway on Saturday, June 27, 2026. A group of black skimmers and least terns are nesting on the causeway island.<\/p>\n<p>Andrew West\/The News-Press &amp; Naples Daily News \/USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida<img class=\"gnt_em_img_i\" src=\"https:\/\/www.news-press.com\/gcdn\/authoring\/authoring-images\/2026\/07\/01\/PFTM\/90776743007-skimmer-dsc-6220.jpg?width=660&amp;height=437&amp;fit=crop&amp;format=pjpg&amp;auto=webp\"  loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Black skimmer chicks are seen with a parent on the Sanibel Causeway on Saturday, June 27, 2026. A group of black skimmers and least terns are nesting on the causeway island.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Black skimmer chicks are seen with a parent on the Sanibel Causeway on Saturday, June 27, 2026. A group of black skimmers and least terns are nesting on the causeway island.<\/p>\n<p>Andrew West\/The News-Press &amp; Naples Daily News \/USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida<img class=\"gnt_em_img_i\" src=\"https:\/\/www.news-press.com\/gcdn\/authoring\/authoring-images\/2026\/07\/01\/PFTM\/90776742007-skimmer-dsc-6281.jpg?width=660&amp;height=405&amp;fit=crop&amp;format=pjpg&amp;auto=webp\"  loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Black skimmer chicks are seen with a parent on the Sanibel Causeway on Saturday, June 27, 2026. A group of black skimmers and least terns are nesting on the causeway island.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Black skimmer chicks are seen with a parent on the Sanibel Causeway on Saturday, June 27, 2026. A group of black skimmers and least terns are nesting on the causeway island.<\/p>\n<p>Andrew West\/The News-Press &amp; Naples Daily News \/USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida<img class=\"gnt_em_img_i\" src=\"https:\/\/www.news-press.com\/gcdn\/authoring\/authoring-images\/2026\/07\/01\/PFTM\/90776749007-skimmer-dsc-6215.jpg?width=660&amp;height=384&amp;fit=crop&amp;format=pjpg&amp;auto=webp\"  loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Black skimmer chicks are seen with a parent on the Sanibel Causeway on Saturday, June 27, 2026. A group of black skimmers and least terns are nesting on the causeway island.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Black skimmer chicks are seen with a parent on the Sanibel Causeway on Saturday, June 27, 2026. A group of black skimmers and least terns are nesting on the causeway island.<\/p>\n<p>Andrew West\/The News-Press &amp; Naples Daily News \/USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida<img class=\"gnt_em_img_i\" src=\"https:\/\/www.news-press.com\/gcdn\/authoring\/authoring-images\/2026\/07\/01\/PFTM\/90776754007-skimmer-dsc-6294.jpg?width=660&amp;height=277&amp;fit=crop&amp;format=pjpg&amp;auto=webp\"  loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Black skimmer chicks are seen with a parent on the Sanibel Causeway on Saturday, June 27, 2026. A group of black skimmers and least terns are nesting on the causeway island.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Black skimmer chicks are seen with a parent on the Sanibel Causeway on Saturday, June 27, 2026. A group of black skimmers and least terns are nesting on the causeway island.<\/p>\n<p>Andrew West\/The News-Press &amp; Naples Daily News \/USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida<img class=\"gnt_em_img_i\" src=\"https:\/\/www.news-press.com\/gcdn\/authoring\/authoring-images\/2026\/07\/01\/PFTM\/90776753007-skimmer-dsc-6306.jpg?width=660&amp;height=414&amp;fit=crop&amp;format=pjpg&amp;auto=webp\"  loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Black skimmer chicks are seen with a parent on the Sanibel Causeway on Saturday, June 27, 2026. A group of black skimmers and least terns are nesting on the causeway island.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Black skimmer chicks are seen with a parent on the Sanibel Causeway on Saturday, June 27, 2026. A group of black skimmers and least terns are nesting on the causeway island.<\/p>\n<p>Andrew West\/The News-Press &amp; Naples Daily News \/USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida<img class=\"gnt_em_img_i\" src=\"https:\/\/www.news-press.com\/gcdn\/authoring\/authoring-images\/2026\/07\/01\/PFTM\/90776744007-skimmer-dsc-6322.jpg?width=660&amp;height=341&amp;fit=crop&amp;format=pjpg&amp;auto=webp\"  loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Black skimmer chicks are seen with a parent on the Sanibel Causeway on Saturday, June 27, 2026. A group of black skimmers and least terns are nesting on the causeway island.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Black skimmer chicks are seen with a parent on the Sanibel Causeway on Saturday, June 27, 2026. A group of black skimmers and least terns are nesting on the causeway island.<\/p>\n<p>Andrew West\/The News-Press &amp; Naples Daily News \/USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida<img class=\"gnt_em_img_i\" src=\"https:\/\/www.news-press.com\/gcdn\/authoring\/authoring-images\/2026\/07\/01\/PFTM\/90776751007-skimmer-dsc-6405.jpg?width=660&amp;height=420&amp;fit=crop&amp;format=pjpg&amp;auto=webp\"  loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Black skimmer chicks are seen with a parent on the Sanibel Causeway on Saturday, June 27, 2026. A group of black skimmers and least terns are nesting on the causeway island.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Black skimmer chicks are seen with a parent on the Sanibel Causeway on Saturday, June 27, 2026. A group of black skimmers and least terns are nesting on the causeway island.<\/p>\n<p>Andrew West\/The News-Press &amp; Naples Daily News \/USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida<img class=\"gnt_em_img_i\" src=\"https:\/\/www.news-press.com\/gcdn\/authoring\/authoring-images\/2026\/07\/01\/PFTM\/90776747007-skimmer-dsc-6407.jpg?width=660&amp;height=312&amp;fit=crop&amp;format=pjpg&amp;auto=webp\"  loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Black skimmer chicks are seen with a parent on the Sanibel Causeway on Saturday, June 27, 2026. A group of black skimmers and least terns are nesting on the causeway island.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Black skimmer chicks are seen with a parent on the Sanibel Causeway on Saturday, June 27, 2026. A group of black skimmers and least terns are nesting on the causeway island.<\/p>\n<p>Andrew West\/The News-Press &amp; Naples Daily News \/USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida<img class=\"gnt_em_img_i\" src=\"https:\/\/www.news-press.com\/gcdn\/authoring\/authoring-images\/2026\/07\/01\/PFTM\/90776752007-skimmer-dsc-6438.jpg?width=660&amp;height=366&amp;fit=crop&amp;format=pjpg&amp;auto=webp\"  loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Black skimmer chicks are seen with a parent on the Sanibel Causeway on Saturday, June 27, 2026. A group of black skimmers and least terns are nesting on the causeway island.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Black skimmer chicks are seen with a parent on the Sanibel Causeway on Saturday, June 27, 2026. A group of black skimmers and least terns are nesting on the causeway island.<\/p>\n<p>Andrew West\/The News-Press &amp; Naples Daily News \/USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida<img class=\"gnt_em_img_i\" src=\"https:\/\/www.news-press.com\/gcdn\/authoring\/authoring-images\/2026\/07\/01\/PFTM\/90776745007-skimmers-dsc-6210.jpg?width=660&amp;height=291&amp;fit=crop&amp;format=pjpg&amp;auto=webp\"  loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Black skimmer chicks are seen with a parent on the Sanibel Causeway on Saturday, June 27, 2026. A group of black skimmers and least terns are nesting on the causeway island.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Black skimmer chicks are seen with a parent on the Sanibel Causeway on Saturday, June 27, 2026. A group of black skimmers and least terns are nesting on the causeway island.<\/p>\n<p>Andrew West\/The News-Press &amp; Naples Daily News \/USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"July 5, 2026, 9:01 a.m. ET Black skimmer chicks are seen with a parent on the Sanibel Causeway&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":330016,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[64,209,211,210,112632,65,66,552],"class_list":["post-330015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-accessmetered","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-sourcefort-myers-news-press","tag-sstsnews","tag-sstsnnews","tag-typegallery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=330015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}