Sandwich Tern
Thalasseus sandvicensis
Tern aficionados in southern California are always on the lookout for unusual species, especially during surveys in the enormous Elegant Tern colonies each spring. Looking for a black-billed tern among the thousands of orange-billed Elegant Terns is no simple task. I never saw one during any tour I took part in. Some of the more experienced biologists in my company even tried to find a hybrid Elegant-Sandwich Tern. If they ever found one, I didn’t hear about the find.
Modern science recognizes three subspecies of Sandwich Tern:
- T. s. sandvicensis breeds in Europe east to the Caspian Sea, and spends winters from Caspian, Black and Mediterranean Seas to coasts of west and south Africa, and from the Red Sea to India and Sri Lanka.
- T. s. acuflavidus breeds in eastern North America and south to the Caribbean. They spend winters south to Peru and Uruguay.
- T. s. eurygnathus breeds on the coast of eastern North America and through Antilles to the southern Caribbean. They spend winters from the Caribbean south, to Peru and Uruguay.
Neither Texas nor the Atlantic seaboard has any Elegant Terns, but they have Sandwich Terns in spades. When I visited south Texas, I discovered that both the west coast and the Gulf Coast share Royal Terns, Black Skimmers, Caspian Terns and Forster’s Terns.
20 Photos
Sandwich Tern(Thalasseus sandvicensis) |
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Description: Sandwich Terns on the sandy flats were one of the reasons I took the long walk out to see them. I began and ended my last day on South Padre Island, visiting the grounds that treated me to so many encounters with migrant birds. Between these times I walked out to the sand flats north of the Convention Centre to look for shorebirds and terns. |
Date Taken: 2021:05:08 10:42 |
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Location:
Convention Center |
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Camera Information: NIKON D5, 800 mm, f/8.0, 1/6000 |
File Name: SandwichTern_D5X7644_SPI-ConventionCtr |
| © 2021 Jack Daynes, shadeTreeImaging.com |
Sandwich Tern(Thalasseus sandvicensis) |
|
Description: Sandwich Terns on the sandy flats were one of the reasons I took the long walk out to see them. I began and ended my last day on South Padre Island, visiting the grounds that treated me to so many encounters with migrant birds. Between these times I walked out to the sand flats north of the Convention Centre to look for shorebirds and terns. |
Date Taken: 2021:05:08 10:38 |
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Location:
Convention Center |
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Camera Information: NIKON D5, 800 mm, f/8.0, 1/8000 |
File Name: SandwichTern_D5X7630_SPI-ConventionCtr |
| © 2021 Jack Daynes, shadeTreeImaging.com |
Sandwich Tern(Thalasseus sandvicensis) |
|
Description: Sandwich Terns on the sandy flats were one of the reasons I took the long walk out to see them. I began and ended my last day on South Padre Island, visiting the grounds that treated me to so many encounters with migrant birds. Between these times I walked out to the sand flats north of the Convention Centre to look for shorebirds and terns. |
Date Taken: 2021:05:08 10:23 |
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Location:
Convention Center |
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Camera Information: NIKON D5, 800 mm, f/8.0, 1/8000 |
File Name: SandwichTern_D5X7463_SPI-ConventionCtr |
| © 2021 Jack Daynes, shadeTreeImaging.com |
Sandwich Tern(Thalasseus sandvicensis) |
|
Description: I wasn’t able to approach this mixed flock as closely as I’d have liked and had to settle for these distant images. A quick Saturday morning tour of Boca Chica Beach to look for Sandwich Terns yielded my first meetings with this species, plus a few others. I hope to do a better job of capturing their images if (or when) I meet them again. |
Date Taken: 2021:04:24 10:26 |
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Location:
Boca Chica Beach |
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Camera Information: NIKON D5, 800 mm, f/8.0, 1/8000 |
File Name: SandwichTern-TernFlock_D5X1088-BocaChicaBeach |
| © 2021 Jack Daynes, shadeTreeImaging.com |
Sandwich Tern(Thalasseus sandvicensis) |
|
Description: I wasn’t able to approach this mixed flock as closely as I’d have liked and had to settle for these distant images. A quick Saturday morning tour of Boca Chica Beach to look for Sandwich Terns yielded my first meetings with this species, plus a few others. I hope to do a better job of capturing their images if (or when) I meet them again. |
Date Taken: 2021:04:24 10:26 |
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Location:
Boca Chica Beach |
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Camera Information: NIKON D5, 800 mm, f/8.0, 1/8000 |
File Name: SandwichTern-TernFlock_D5X1086-BocaChicaBeach |
| © 2021 Jack Daynes, shadeTreeImaging.com |
Sandwich Tern(Thalasseus sandvicensis) |
|
Description: I wasn’t able to approach this mixed flock as closely as I’d have liked and had to settle for these distant images. A quick Saturday morning tour of Boca Chica Beach to look for Sandwich Terns yielded my first meetings with this species, plus a few others. I hope to do a better job of capturing their images if (or when) I meet them again. |
Date Taken: 2021:04:24 10:26 |
|
Location:
Boca Chica Beach |
|
Camera Information: NIKON D5, 800 mm, f/8.0, 1/8000 |
File Name: SandwichTern-TernFlock_D5X1076-BocaChicaBeach |
| © 2021 Jack Daynes, shadeTreeImaging.com |
Sandwich Tern(Thalasseus sandvicensis) |
|
Description: I wasn’t able to approach this mixed flock as closely as I’d have liked and had to settle for these distant images. A quick Saturday morning tour of Boca Chica Beach to look for Sandwich Terns yielded my first meetings with this species, plus a few others. I hope to do a better job of capturing their images if (or when) I meet them again. |
Date Taken: 2021:04:24 10:26 |
|
Location:
Boca Chica Beach |
|
Camera Information: NIKON D5, 800 mm, f/8.0, 1/8000 |
File Name: SandwichTern-TernFlock_D5X1069-BocaChicaBeach |
| © 2021 Jack Daynes, shadeTreeImaging.com |
Sandwich Tern(Thalasseus sandvicensis) |
|
Description: I wasn’t able to approach this mixed flock as closely as I’d have liked and had to settle for these distant images. A quick Saturday morning tour of Boca Chica Beach to look for Sandwich Terns yielded my first meetings with this species, plus a few others. I hope to do a better job of capturing their images if (or when) I meet them again. |
Date Taken: 2021:04:24 10:25 |
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Location:
Boca Chica Beach |
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Camera Information: NIKON D5, 800 mm, f/8.0, 1/8000 |
File Name: SandwichTern-TernFlock_D5X1052-BocaChicaBeach |
| © 2021 Jack Daynes, shadeTreeImaging.com |
Sandwich Tern(Thalasseus sandvicensis) |
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Description: Part of the collection at the Western Foundation of Vertibrate Zoology in Camarillo, California. |
Date Taken: 2011:11:02 12:43 |
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Location:
W. Fdn. of Vertibrate Zoology |
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Camera Information: NIKON D3X, 105 mm, f/11.0, 1/6 |
File Name: SandwichTern_D3X4734-Eggs |
| © 2011 Jack Daynes, shadeTree Imaging |
Sandwich Tern(Thalasseus sandvicensis) |
|
Description: Part of the collection at the Western Foundation of Vertibrate Zoology in Camarillo, California. |
Date Taken: 2011:11:02 12:38 |
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Location:
W. Fdn. of Vertibrate Zoology |
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Camera Information: NIKON D3X, 105 mm, f/11.0, 1/6 |
File Name: SandwichTern_D3X4730-Eggs |
| © 2011 Jack Daynes, shadeTree Imaging |
Sandwich Tern(Thalasseus sandvicensis) |
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Description: Driving south from Port Aransas, I stopped to investigate a beach access road, and enjoyed meeting terns and shorebirds. |
Date Taken: 2022:08:21 13:39 |
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Location:
Mustang Beach |
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Camera Information: NIKON D850, 800 mm, f/8.0, 1/8000 |
File Name: SandwichTern_8506047-MustangBeach |
| © 2022 Jack Daynes, shadeTreeImaging.com |
Sandwich Tern(Thalasseus sandvicensis) |
|
Description: Driving south from Port Aransas, I stopped to investigate a beach access road, and enjoyed meeting terns and shorebirds. |
Date Taken: 2022:08:21 13:40 |
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Location:
Mustang Beach |
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Camera Information: NIKON D850, 800 mm, f/8.0, 1/8000 |
File Name: SandwichTern_8506065-MustangBeach |
| © 2022 Jack Daynes, shadeTreeImaging.com |
Sandwich Tern(Thalasseus sandvicensis) |
|
Description: Driving south from Port Aransas, I stopped to investigate a beach access road, and enjoyed meeting terns and shorebirds. |
Date Taken: 2022:08:21 13:40 |
|
Location:
Mustang Beach |
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Camera Information: NIKON D850, 800 mm, f/8.0, 1/8000 |
File Name: SandwichTern_8506068-MustangBeach |
| © 2022 Jack Daynes, shadeTreeImaging.com |
Sandwich Tern(Thalasseus sandvicensis) |
|
Description: Driving south from Port Aransas, I stopped to investigate a beach access road, and enjoyed meeting terns and shorebirds. |
Date Taken: 2022:08:21 13:43 |
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Location:
Mustang Beach |
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Camera Information: NIKON D850, 800 mm, f/8.0, 1/8000 |
File Name: SandwichTern_8506109-MustangBeach |
| © 2022 Jack Daynes, shadeTreeImaging.com |
Sandwich Tern(Thalasseus sandvicensis) |
|
Description: Driving south from Port Aransas, I stopped to investigate a beach access road, and enjoyed meeting terns and shorebirds. |
Date Taken: 2022:08:21 13:43 |
|
Location:
Mustang Beach |
|
Camera Information: NIKON D850, 800 mm, f/8.0, 1/8000 |
File Name: SandwichTern_8506113-MustangBeach |
| © 2022 Jack Daynes, shadeTreeImaging.com |
Sandwich Tern(Thalasseus sandvicensis) |
|
Description: Driving south from Port Aransas, I stopped to investigate a beach access road, and enjoyed meeting terns and shorebirds. |
Date Taken: 2022:08:21 13:43 |
|
Location:
Mustang Beach |
|
Camera Information: NIKON D850, 800 mm, f/8.0, 1/8000 |
File Name: SandwichTern_8506121-MustangBeach |
| © 2022 Jack Daynes, shadeTreeImaging.com |
Sandwich Tern(Thalasseus sandvicensis) |
|
Description: Driving south from Port Aransas, I stopped to investigate a beach access road, and enjoyed meeting terns and shorebirds. |
Date Taken: 2022:08:21 13:44 |
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Location:
Mustang Beach |
|
Camera Information: NIKON D850, 800 mm, f/8.0, 1/8000 |
File Name: SandwichTern_8506148-MustangBeach |
| © 2022 Jack Daynes, shadeTreeImaging.com |
Sandwich Tern(Thalasseus sandvicensis) |
|
Description: Driving south from Port Aransas, I stopped to investigate a beach access road, and enjoyed meeting terns and shorebirds. |
Date Taken: 2022:08:21 13:56 |
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Location:
Mustang Beach |
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Camera Information: NIKON D850, 800 mm, f/8.0, 1/8000 |
File Name: SandwichTern_8506230-MustangBeach |
| © 2022 Jack Daynes, shadeTreeImaging.com |
Sandwich Tern(Thalasseus sandvicensis) |
|
Description: Sandwich Terns spend the entire year on the Texas Gulf Coast, and can usually be found on South Padre beaches. This immature bird was probably raised on nearby dunes. |
Date Taken: 2022:09:17 10:43 |
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Location:
South Padre Beaches |
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Camera Information: NIKON D850, 800 mm, f/8.0, 1/8000 |
File Name: SandwichTern_8503904-SPI.Beaches |
| © 2022 Jack Daynes, shadeTreeImaging.com |
Sandwich Tern(Thalasseus sandvicensis) |
|
Description: Sandwich Terns spend the entire year on the Texas Gulf Coast, and can usually be found on South Padre beaches. This immature bird was probably raised on nearby dunes. |
Date Taken: 2022:09:17 10:43 |
|
Location:
South Padre Beaches |
|
Camera Information: NIKON D850, 800 mm, f/8.0, 1/8000 |
File Name: SandwichTern_8503915-SPI.Beaches |
| © 2022 Jack Daynes, shadeTreeImaging.com |
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