Subject: Giving Up on Gulls (was: Coastal Birding)
Date: Jan 21 12:22:04 1998
From: Michael Price - mprice at mindlink.bc.ca


Hi Tweets,

Kristi Streiffert writes:

>I give up!
>
>So what are the basics of herring vs. Western x G-W hybrids? Wait...
>don't tell me...I gave up on gulls...

At the risk of making it even more difficult by introducing the Mike/Michael
problem, I want to say, don't give up. Gull ID is great fun once you have
the basics in place. Secondly, the range of characters in the hybrids may
make leaving them alone until you're ready to tackle them may be a good idea.

Kurt Vonnegut wrote that confusion is a sign you're learning, and every time
you look at them you're adding to the database in your memory. The amount
and degree of complexity of pattern-recognition in gull ID is intrinsically
large and, guaranteed, you are not going to learn it in a few
afternoons--nothing but frustration awaits that approach. If you want to
learn on your own, the foundation takes months at the least and filling in
the rest takes the rest of your life. I'd suggest being content with and
celebrating small increments of knowledge, and as you're able to integrate
more and more information, patterns will enmerge to make it easier. It can
be frustrating or challenging or both depending on how you feel about it
until one day you suddenly realise you know most of these birds and then the
ones you find challengingly un-ID-able would give *anyone* a hard time. You
can shorten this process greatly by a concentrated program of birding with
birders familiar with gull ID.

Michael Price A brave world, Sir,
Vancouver BC Canada full of religion, knavery and change;
mprice at mindlink.net we shall shortly see better days.
Aphra Behn (1640-1689)