Greetings everyone!  Been wrapped up in the chaos we call Christmas and have not had time to really sit down and relax in the warm glow of the computer monitors.  Clearly the financial engine is booming in America as trips to the stores to pick up items to celebrate the now over-commercialized event meant spending three times as long in a checkout line than it took to actually find that perfect gift.  Every store – same story.  I do try to support the local independents – the problem is my time is becoming increasingly valuable to me.  Quite revealing as the mainstream media and self-serving politicians tried their hardest to paint a false recession narrative just a few months back.  In honor of this soaring economy, I bring you royalty (well, at least I’m pretty sure about that).

I have not featured a lot of Terns here and not for lack of images.  On the contrary, my photo queue is full to the brim with these sharp looking birds.  They happen to be a family of birds that hang out at my favorite local wildlife refuge in Havana (Emiquon) as well as easy fodder on our multiple trips down the Texas Gulf Coast.  If you have access to a fairly decent sized body of water, then you have a good chance of being able to witness these aerial acrobats in action.  The difficulty is not getting them classified in the right family as their slim/aerodynamic profile and dagger sharp bills tend to quickly differentiate them from the abundance of Gulls sure to be in the same area.  No, the difficulty comes into getting them categorized in the right species as there are at least eleven I can name off the top of my head that are available somewhere in North America.  Granted not as hard as ID’ing one of the twenty or so Gull varieties, but they do have a similar issue in that their coloring doesn’t differ that much – especially out of the breeding season.

Hit the jump to learn more about this sleek looking bird.

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