I don't think I'd ever seen fresh juvie Royal Terns before, so I enjoyed seeing them in VA.
I don't think I've ever seen a large tern with a yellow bill. The finely patterned scaps of young terns are always cool to see too.
I'm guessing this next bird is a slightly older juvie.
Which could make this bird with a couple darkish retained tail feathers and a bit heavier secondary bar than most of the adults maybe a one year old?
The adults seemed to enjoy flying around carrying fish
I rarely saw them transfer the fish to another bird, so whether they were just enjoying showing off to the neighbors, whether they were looking for mates/offspring that were just elsewhere or doing something else I don't know, but it was fun to watch them eventually attract a screaming mass of other birds that never quite caught up...
Finally a Caspian that flew by. The Royals had much higher pitched voices and when this bird flew past calling I was disappointed since I couldn't tell it apart from a Caspian ... but it was a Caspian fortunately
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