Staying on the subject of birds. Figure 1is another photograph from La Jolla Cove. This fellow is a Royal Tern (Thalasseus maximus). Terns are glorious birds, beautiful and elegant in flight. The Royal tern stands out for its distinctive head plumage. The crest shown in the photograph is however, the off-season head dress, when the birds lose most of the crest feathers and sport a white spot, resembling so many of my once long-haired contemporaries, who in the day sported elegant long hair and now are reduced to bald head with straggly ponytail.

Canon T2i with EF 100-400 mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM lens at 210 mm, 1/3200 th sec at f/7.1, ISO 800, Aperture Priority AE mode.