To be honest, when I took these photos, I may have thought these were interesting looking gulls rather than the royal terns they are! They look like balding old men to me.
The royal tern is about 18-21″/46-53 cm. During breeding, it has a black crest that covers the top of it’s head, but this is how the crest looks during non-breeding. Note the orange bill, as well.
They are likely to stay put during winter, but may migrate a little south. They eat fish and crustaceans. They begin breeding around age four.
Notice there is a common tern in the photos, along with a herring gull. One big happy friend group! Friends are very important for us all, aren’t they? All you need is one solid friend in life, in my opinion. Additional friends are the icing on the cake and the cherry on top! Hopefully you have at least one bosom buddy. I am fortunate in the friends department and not a day goes by that I don’t feel gratitude for each of them. But do I tell them how appreciative of them I am? I do, but probably not often enough…
I’m going to resolve to express how dearly I love my friends this week. Life can be so short, so complicated and I wouldn’t want them to be unaware of how cared for and appreciated they are!
“A man who has friends must himself be friendly, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” Proverbs 18:24
35Sparrows For All Things Birding & Nature 