Sandwich Terns

Many birds, including these graceful Sandwich terns, are named for their “type locality,” the place where they were first described. In County Kent, just east of London, there was a market town, a wic in old Anglo-Saxon. The soil there overlooking the English Channel was sandy, thus Sandwich, a market town on sandy soil. These particular Sandwich terns were found an ocean away, on the sandy beaches of Sanibel Island, Florida.