One of my favourite terns, and one we see in Nebraska. The interior least tern (Sterna antillarum athalassos) breeds on sandbars along the Platte, Loup, Elkhorn, Niobrara, and Missouri Rivers—successfully enough that it was delisted last year. These on Cape Cod, though, are the nominate subspecies, Sterna a. antillarum.
While standing on Sea Gull Beach in West Yarmouth, we saw a male fly in with a sand lance ("sand eel") and Jessa photographed the courtship dance, both birds jerking their heads abruptly from left to right, and the subsequent mating.
And then after their brief liaison, the little bastard flew off without relinquishing the fish.
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