At the beach, we normally see many more gulls than terns, but in the afternoon, it is not uncommon to see a solidary tern hovering over the shallow water next to the beach. While they hover, flying up and down the beach, they look for fish and occasionally dive from height to snag one or at least try to. On Lake Superior terns are rather solidary creatures, but once while migrating we saw hundreds of terns flocked together in Monterey. There were so many birds that when they rose up, they were like a white tern-ado. Terns are longer-billed, lighter-bodied, and more streamlined than gulls, and their long tails and long narrow wings give them an elegance in flight. There is one species of terns that is called an Elegant Tern. The pictured tern is just a Common Tern, but it also exhibits a certain elegance as it goes about its business.