A Southeast wind blows. Clouds of sand lift from the beach and pour out to sea in tearing currents like a river in flood. The crests of approaching breakers are blasted into flowing streams of spray that fly behind them like a comet's tail.
Flickering through the nearly impenetrable wall of wind, Common terns beat furiously onward, making their way inevitably forward to find a small refuge: a roost of several thousand others nestled in the safety of an ephemeral lagoon. In the softened wind they rest.
