In 1982, Richard Mewaldt and I suggested that the Caspian Tern (Hydroprogne caspia), with its current rate of population expansion along the Pacific Coast, could soon be found nesting in Alaska (Gill and Mewaldt 1983). And indeed it was, but not until 1996 (McCaffery et al. 1997), and then in a region of the state far removed from the Copper River delta, where numerous observations had suggested actual nesting may have occurred since the early 1980s (Gibson and Kessel 1992, Lohse et al., this issue)—hence the prophecy part of this story.