Heading north?

 

Caspian Terns (Hydroprogne caspia) in Bodega Harbor. [You can click on the image for a larger version.]  I learned something about Caspian Terns tonight.  I read that their farthest north breeding colony is on Neragon Island in the Bering Sea near Cape Romanzof, Alaska.  I hadn't known they nested that far north!  

Romanzof sounded familiar, and I realized there was a connection to Bodega Bay.  When Russians settled in Bodega Bay in the early 1800s, they referred to Bodega Bay as Port Rumyantsev.  Bodega Bay was one of the southernmost Russian outposts, so the Russian name for this area connects us to the northernmost breeding site for Caspian Terns.  Both were named after a Russian count — Count Nikolai Petrovich Rumyantsev.  His name turns up in many places, e.g., another example is one of our local orchids, Spiranthes romanzoffiana.  (Rumyantsev and Romanzof are versions of the same name.)