Having been alerted by Rob Hilton's message, Toni and I went down to the reservoir, arriving at 6:00PM, and had no trouble finding the skimmer out on the dike, right where Rob left it. At 6:05 four gulls ambled toward it in a manner not unlike one of the rumble gangs in West Side Story. The skimmer flew, did some skimming on the far pond, and returned to the dike. While we were there, Byron Swift and Ottavio Janni stopped by to enjoy the view. The skimmer flew once again, this time a shorter flight. It moves its wings quite stiffly, very much in contrast to the powerfully fluid motions of the white pelican I observed off Jones Point on August 24th. It had tucked its head and was snoozing when we left at 6:40PM David Strother Bethesda dstrother@pop.dn.net