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October 2022

Vol. 50, No. 5

Field Note: Double-eyed Royal Tern

John J. Gill

Full view of the double-eyed Royal Tern in flight, March 24, 2022. All photographs by the author.
Full view of the double-eyed Royal Tern in flight, March 24, 2022. All photographs by the author.

I was with a friend at Sebastian Inlet, in Melbourne, Florida, on March 24, 2022. The inlet is in Sebastian Inlet State Park, Brevard and Indian River counties, and is off State Road A1A approximately12 miles north of Vero Beach. We were trying to photograph Ospreys (Pandion haliaetus) catching fish, but it was windy and the water was too rough for the Ospreys to fish. Suddenly a Royal Tern (Thalasseus maximus) came crashing down into the water in front of me, and I noticed that it had a fish, so I started clicking away.

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