As the World's Terns. . .

Nothing big for today, only that I ran across a mention of the Sooty Tern (Onychoprion fuscatus). Here's a story for you: they very nearly live their whole lives aloft, only coming down to mate and raise their young. Even the prosaic explanation that they are not particularly waterproof, and would get dangerously soaked if they spent too much time on the ocean that they spend their lives over does little to dim the brilliant truth--they literally spend years in the air. Talk about slipping the surly bonds of earth! And they're pretty, on top of it.