You are almost certainly seeing BLACK-LEGGED KITTIWAKE. They are all
over right now (400+ at the South Jetty of the Columbia River today)
They have very tern-like behaviors and a yellow bill.


>
>Hi, Yesterday a couple of friends and I drove to Ediz Hook, looking for the
>snowy owl (no show). We did see several species of old friends, but about
>six pm, looking toward the sunset, we saw 4-5 terns. The lighting was bad
>for distinguishing marks clearly, but they had black wing-tips with a dab of
>white at the very end, bills seemed to be yellowish, eyes dark. I thought I
>could see a faint, dark, eye-stripe. They hovered like terns, and dived
>head first into the water. The pure white tail was only slightly concave,
>not deeply forked.
>I have been moving, and don't have all my bird books with me yet, so
>definitely need help with the identification. Oh, they were only about half
>the size of a Western gull which perched nearby.
>Thanks,
>Mickey Gibson
>Sequim,WA
>
>
>
>

--
*********************************** I was of three minds
* Mike Patterson, Astoria, OR * like a tree
* mpatters at orednet.org * in which there are three blackbirds.
*http://www.pacifier.com/~mpatters* -Wallace Stevens