In the western United States west of the 100th meridian, the Black Skimmer (Rynchops niger) was fist recorded in coastal southern California on 8 September 1962 (Audubon Field Notes 17:69) and fist recorded inland, at the Salton Sea in southeastern California, on 3 July 1968 (McCaskie and Suffel 1971). After breeding began at the Salton Sea in 1972 (McCaskie et al. 1974), the Black Skimmer rapidly expanded its distribution in California, with an estimated breeding population of 1200 pairs in 1995 (Collins and Garrett 1996) and 1400–1500 pairs in 2005 (Molina 2008) in breeding colonies at the Salton Sea and scattered coastal localities as far north as south San Francisco Bay (Collins and Garrett 1996, Molina 1996, 2008). Skimmers occasionally wander along the coast north of San Francisco to Bodega Bay in Sonoma County (Bolander and Parmeter 2000), rarely farther north. In Humboldt County, a pair was seen at Eureka from 17 to 23 August 2004 (N. Am. Birds [NAB] 59:144) and one was at McKinleyville on 19 July 2005 (NAB 59:651). Another turned up at Crescent City, Del Norte County, on 13 July 2007 (NAB 61:638). A skimmer subsequently seen at Pistol River in Curry County, Oregon, on 26 January 2008 (NAB 62:294, Irons 2008), represents the northernmost record in western North America.