In the good old cruising days my first act o' mornings was to look thru the porthole. There was a snug little harbor (scarcely an acre in extent) just inside Debs Inlet on Long Island. When I pecked out that May morning at the beach within fifty feet, there was a picture! Thirty-two ROSEATE TERNS were holding a wooing carnival there!
The sun was still abed but hints of its awakening tinted the east, the sand and those graceful birds. Not their breasts but all their bodies blushed. And well they might! With heads aloft, wings and tails spread, the lovely swains pirouetted so entrancingly that "none could resist." Still the ladies didn't seem much interested. When sight of their charms was ineffective, the disappointed lovers flew off and returned with wiggly fish — appeal to appetite might prevail! The fish were calmly eaten and the morning toilet continued. Well — females are funny!
Roseate Terns often nest in company with Common Terns but usually select an area of their own. Like others of the genus they are spunky and aggresive in defending their open-hearth homes.
From Nova Scotia southward.