The Earl of Terns

Not sure who we pissed off, but the 75 degree weather we were enjoying has turned downright cold along with a steady 20-30 mph. By Monday they are expecting snow with a nightly windchill into those nasty negative numbers. One last gasp for Mr. Winter I guess before it gets its butt outta here. Braved the biting wind today to post my first 8 mile run since well before the ankle surgery last year. Admittedly, managed to see my lungs as they flamed out of my rib cage, but an excellent benchmark for the upcoming visit with the surgeon this week. Would like to push it a little more before the appointment if the weather calms down a bit. Beyond that, not much new other than after the run I braved the cold to stand in a large meadow in the middle of a forest in order to get the Timberdoodle checked off the list for this year. Accidentally got up close and personal with a Coyote that didn’t see me until it was too late – we both had a brief but intense moment of reflection – me hoping it didn’t see my weakened ankle and he wondering if that large black glass held projectiles. I waved, it pointed to its fangs and we mutually agreed not to send Christmas cards.

“Birds Bri, they are here for the birds.” Sorry, let’s get to that. I am actually planning on taking a break for a bit with the doctor’s visit coming up and we need to get our Washington trip planned. Brad and Jan are back from the field and figured that would be a good time to pop a few of their adventures off the queue to keep you entertained. Before I do that though, wanted to get this companion piece out to the previous Least Tern post. Like that featured feathered friend, todays is also a +1 for Intrigued (just leaving one Tern in my backlog queue if you are keeping score ha).

This Tern leaves quite the first impression eh? Hit the jump to see more shots of this readily ID’d Tern and learn a bit more about this particular species.

I still commit to the belief that the Least Tern is the cutest one in the entire family. The smaller stature, that white forehead and the thin yellow-ink-dipped bill is quite the package. Went through a number of iterations trying to accurately capture the proper description of this fellow Tern.

Multiple pads of paper later, flash card exercises with Linda and a shockingly dangerous game of darts (none of that soft tip crap allowed around Intrigued) finally came to the winning entry..drum roll please….SMUG!

For the record, “SHAGBRAIN” was as distant second once all the tallying was complete. It will be more apparent where the pompousness emanates from – and yes I had to look up how to spell pompousness hehehe.

For those not familiar with this species of Tern, it is a rather worldly creature that ranges from the coastlines of southeastern US, down into Central/South America, over into Africa with a smatterings of locations in Europe and Middle East. Apologies, I am a product of American parochial schooling and by definition my geography knowledge is abysmal. Going to narrow in on the regions I am more familiar with (apologies to our friends across the pond). The Gulf coast is where they spend their nonbreeding months and then the Atlantic coast where they push up for the frisky season. There are some that stay resident in the Caribbean and the eastern shores of South America.

Before you bang on your keyboard, this is a reason I haven’t touched upon the name yet – appears there is a bit of controversy in the moniker that I was not aware of before I started researching for this post. Prior to that, I would have proudly and decisively declared this as a Sandwich Tern.

Yes, that Sandwich, as in the Earl of Sandwich we used to make jokes about as a kid (I already confessed my early education deficiencies). The species name: Thalasseus Sandvicensis with Thalasseus meaning “Sea” and Sandvicensis being “Bologna Sandwich” or literally a sea of Oscar Mayer sandwiches. It is said the Tern’s bill is the result of getting mustard on it while downing one of those delicious sandwiches.

I just got a call from our legal department and forced to make a retraction (against my will). So it really isn’t Bologna Sandwich, rather Sandwich as in Kent, England where the bird was first identified. Chide me all you want, but I bet you instantly get this bird’s name every time you see its bill from here on out hehehehe.

This is where it gets a little tricky. Apparently some birding organizations have their panties in a bunch over this particular name – the real name, not the Intrigued preferred name which is “right out” by all name governing bodies. The American Ornithological Society and Clements Taxonomy lumps the three subspecies of this Tern (Eurasian, Cabot’s and Cayenne) under the Sandwich Tern umbrella. This is the naming body/taxonomy that Intrigued relies on for our classifications (unless they attempt to change names for ridiculous reasons in which cases we refuse to adopt as a policy). Easy-peasy they are all Bologna Sandwiches.

But wait, the International Ornithological Committee treats the Cabot’s Terns as distinct species with the Cayenne as a subspecies of it, so they have the Sandwich AND the Cabot’s. That would mean you are actually looking at a Cabot’s Tern in this series and NOT a Sandwich. I have spoken to many of the mustard tipped Terns in Texas and every one of them thinks Cabot’s is a stupid name and refuses to be called anything other than Sandwiches, in fact, they really prefer to be called Earl of Sandwich – they have spoken!

I can also say without question they get very testy if you refer to them as SMUG. Now I ask you, looking at the beach shots above and the ones below, is that not a fitting description – their noses in the air looking all cocky like with their thumbs in their white smoking jackets? {In your best Patrick Stewart voice} “Excuse me sir, is that Grey Poupon on your bill?”

I have been trying to add in shots as of late to help with referential sizing. Where the Leasts were close to the Sanderling size, the Sandwiches are larger coming in a little smaller than the Royal and Caspians, but larger than the Forster’s. Here they are next to a Laughing Gull and a Black Skimmer for those familiar with those species.

As mentioned before, this is one of those Terns that is easily identified by the black bill with the yellow tip which the Cabot’s and Eurasians both have during breeding and nonbreeding. Juveniles will not have the yellow tip and the Cayennes actually have an all yellow bill.

The other standout feature on the breeding males are the shaggy brains, I mean heads. Every single time I see that feature, I burst out laughing, they are like the Elvis of the birding world. Take a bow Mr. Pelvis and show the audience your shaggy hairdo.

During the nonbreeding season their foreheads will turn white making them look like an aging Craig T. Nelson that dyed his remaining hair black.

Wow, at the end of the shots and I haven’t even told you where this series was taken. Turns out they were found at the convention center flats on South Padre Island. Just an absolutely wonderful place to take picture of shorebirds due to their abundance and willingness to let you get pretty close to them – yes, even the smug ones. Decided to go ahead and throw in my favorite shot of the Sandwiches – this one was actually taken at Port Aransas South Jetty – same place as the Least Terns in the previous post.

That shot took a lot of work to get in the tin. Sandwiches are incredibly agile in the air with those long slender wings and they were using every dogfight maneuver they could muster in their battle over that fish – then the absolutely outmatched Laughing Gull decided it would join the foray.

Okay folks, going to let it go there – apologies for the longer than usual post. While I step off for a bit, stay tuned for more adventures from Brad and Jan. Take care.