>From Russell Rogers, Seattle WA, rrogers at halcyon.com

I can sympathize with Chirs and Janet. When I first moved to the northwest
I was overwhelmed by all the different gulls here. I have gotten much
better since my arrival, but I still have a long way to go.

What I did, was after looking at and identifying as many gulls as I could,
I could see where I had the most problems in sorting them out. I then went
down to Tacoma and spent a day at the Slater Museum looking at all the
different variations of gulls that are found in the region. Dennis has a
good selection of skins and wings to look at. The Slater Museum also has
Dennis. I found having the skins and Dennis there very helpful. After you
leave the Museum, stop down at the Port of Tacoma, where the Slaty-backed
Gull was, and look for a large flock of gulls and put that newly gained
knowledge to work. Nearly all of the gulls of the northwest were down at
the Port of Tacoma last winter.

The single most important piece of advice that I can think of for folks
trying to learn to identify our gulls is, that you need to get use to the
feeling that not all gulls are identifiable. There are some that, even in
the hand, impossible to identify.

Good luck,

Russell Rogers
4510 Glenn Way SW
Seattle, WA 98116
(206) 935-6280
rrogers at halcyon.com