Hi Tweeters,

I'd suggest that any Glaucous-winged Gull showing an immaculate white head
in winter is showing some Western Gull parentage. My understanding is that
in this part of the world only WEGU shows little to no winter 'hooding' in
its adult basic plumages.

Will strongly second Dennis' remark that P.J. Grant's 2nd ed. 'Gulls, a
Guide to Identification' is the best gull book around. Anyone who feels
intimidated by the complexity of gull identification will find this book
reduces gull ID to the same level as any other type of bird: just working
over field marks. Most gulls are *much* easier to ID than, say, Empids.

There's always been the myth that gulls are intrinsically difficult:
they're no more difficult than any other family with which one is
unfamiliar; more complex, perhaps, but not more difficult. The term
"difficult" loads people's preconceptions. The true difficulty has always
been the lack of material in the field guides that average birders use (no
discussions on 'average', please). Hats off to National Geographic for
trying to the extent that they did, even if a few of the illustrations are
a bit dodgy. And good for Peterson
showing the Western Gull molt sequence. Helpful, too, is Kaufman's section
on gull identification in his book 'Advanced Birding'.

It can't be said too often: the key to gull (and shorebird) ID is *aging*
the bird properly. Before Grant, this was difficult for the non-specialist.
Grant takes you in beautifully-detailed, clear text with *lots* of
photographs chosen for the purpose, through the complete molt sequence of
each W. European & N. American species. After a few weeks study with it,
laridophobes will be able to 'age & stage' and identify with much more
confidence.

Some may not want to take a snazzy new hardcover into the field. I got
around that by putting it into a bubblepak mailing envelope to protect it
from being chewed up by the other contents of my backpack.

Michael Price
Vancouver BC Canada
michael_price at mindlink.bc.ca