Birding!
- Thread starter jjohnwm
- Start date
Lol, I hope you got a bunch more pics of that mystery gull, Shadow. Of all the potentially-challenging bird groups...distant raptors, immature fall sparrows, Red Crossbill races, the dreaded peeps and LBJ's...I personally think that gulls are the most difficult, and they definitely bring the birding ultra-nerds out of the woodwork. It's a big group of generally similar-appearing birds, most of which have several plumage phases as they mature. They are among the most likely birds to travel long distances from their normal range...they definitely do hybridize a lot...and there can be significant individual variation between individuals. It's impressive to see and listen to birders of the highest experience level picking apart a pic like that an discussing the details. That third primary feather seems to be slightly shorter in relation to the second...the culmen is 5% thicker than expected...the iris is verrrry slightly oblong...the smudge behind the eye is 12.5% darker than it should be...the toenails are the wrong shade of grey. Honestly, I don't know whether to be awestruck or just to laugh out loud...maybe both... 
You saw the bird in person, saw it walk and preen, saw different angles and details...pics like the one you posted cannot possibly approach that. Not taking a shot at you in person; long-distance pics always suck. So don't be too disappointed if you never hear an accepted consensus as to that bird's ID. We don't need to ID every single bird; in fact, we shouldn't. The mystery of a bird like that is a big part of the charm of birding.
And, of course, since you got the best look at it...any failure to ultimately ID it is entirely your fault!!!
There are some things man was not meant to know...
You saw the bird in person, saw it walk and preen, saw different angles and details...pics like the one you posted cannot possibly approach that. Not taking a shot at you in person; long-distance pics always suck. So don't be too disappointed if you never hear an accepted consensus as to that bird's ID. We don't need to ID every single bird; in fact, we shouldn't. The mystery of a bird like that is a big part of the charm of birding.
And, of course, since you got the best look at it...any failure to ultimately ID it is entirely your fault!!!
There are some things man was not meant to know...
jokes on you it seems that the gull nerds have agreed on a Glaucous-winged x Western hybrid, Olympic Gull; probably the most common hybrid. I think the toenails were indeed the right color
No joke on me at all; in fact, that was the whole point I was trying, albeit poorly, to make. There are birders who cannot accept that some birds just can't be certainly ID'd, and simply must put a label on every individual specimen they see. If there's actually a common name attached to this hybrid, then it must be a relatively common one, but still a rarity. Do you always believe that each of these birds is correctly ID'd from a handful of fuzzy photos? I sure don't...and there is, aside from shooting the bird and analyzing its DNA, no way to be certain who, if anyone, is correct.jokes on you it seems that the gull nerds have agreed on a Glaucous-winged x Western hybrid, Olympic Gull; probably the most common hybrid. I think the toenails were indeed the right color
There's another extreme in the birding world as well: these are the guys who simply cannot accept that anyone other than they themselves is capable of ID-ing even the simplest most common bird. This type of expert points out that the robin that someone photographed in their backyard displays some subtle indications that it might be a hybrid, a robin crossed with some obscure Eurasian thrush that has been seen maybe 3x anywhere in North America. I knew a birder like this many years ago. Not only did he point out that anyone else might have been mistaken in their last ID, but by some incredible coincidence he found a string of incredibly rare birds that were never seen by anyone else. Moments after a group left a given spot, some unbelievably obscure vagrant would flash past him, giving him just enough of a clear view that allowed his superlative skills to ID the oddball. Sometimes hoards of birders would then stake out the spot and maybe scour the surrounding area, desperately hoping for a glimpse of the Grail Bird. It never happened; his discoveries were always one-day wonders, or even one-minute wonders, never to be seen again. His flock of followers dwindled over the years; I wonder why? Too many boy-that-cried-wolf events, perhaps?
I envy the skills of top birders; I'm especially amazed and awed by folks who can hear some obscure chirp or squeak or peep at a distance, perhaps from far up in the air after dark, and correctly identify the chirper or squeaker. I just don't believe that the available evidence...in most cases from a grainy pic or two...can always be used to ID everything.