ID the Gulls!
Before we get started, just a quick reminder that the September '08 Photo Contest is winding down, so, if you snooze, you lose!
Onward...
Right off the bat... Understand that in some respects, gulls are to Cape Codders what pigeons are to city dwellers - rats with wings. Granted, if the analogy is carried to its rightful conclusion, gulls are huge rats with wings, but I digress... Some folks around here tend to think of them as, well, "lower class". That's not to disparage them... Not at all. They serve a crucial role on this peninsula keeping things tidy, but they do have a sort of "garbage truck" reputation. Whatever...
Alrighty then, let's take a look at the gulls below and see if we can't identify these critters or at least look foolish in the process...
But what of the brownish brute on the left? Time to crack open the books. Hmmm... Looks to be a Herring Gull, but it's kind of on the large side. Given the size, I'd guess that that bird is a juvenile Great Black-backed Gull, though I'm itching to be corrected.
But that's just one aspect of the fun of birds - you get to fuss with books (and the resources below) and play detective. Hey! I could have completely misidentified those birds. One might be a hummingbird, and the other might be a merganser. But I still had fun, and no one got hurt...
See you by the feeders,
CapeCodAlan
eBirdseed.com photo library
