We had visitors recently. One wonderful aspect of these visits is a chance to head to the beach. We opt for Holmes Beach and Anna Maria. I brought my camera on a windy, wild-wave day. I'm glad I did. Because I got my first photograph of a Sandwich Tern (January 2019).
Even in this head-on photo, the yellow on its bill stands out.
My birding pals say that an easy way to identify the Sandwich Tern is that it looks like it dipped its bill in mustard. That makes it easy to remember. Because there are many other terns at the beach. At first, I thought it was a Forester's Tern. This is a Forester's Tern (juvenile):
Helpful identifying features for the Forester's Tern: no mustard, smile smile, and bandit-mask eye markings).
