May 16, 1960, on Dauphin TsIand , was a hot, humid spring day, The sky was bright blue) with large white clouds drifting over lazily from the Gulf. Caspian and Royal Terns courted high overhead” noisily pursuing one another, wheeling and careening in wild aerial maneuvers” setting their wings, then planing through the air like white jets. Laughing Gulls flew slowly, deliberately over the Island, squawking. Least Terns winged gracefully, like swallows, over the water’s edge, hovered momentarily, then dropping like a dart into a wave rose quickly with a silver minnow.