[obol] Gull ID discussion

[DAVID IRONS]

Greetings All,

Larophilia -- A rapidly spreading disease that can quickly overwhelm all 
other threads on birding listservs. Has been known to completely ruin some 
listservs (see ID-Frontiers).  Symptoms include; adults squabbling like 
little children over the ultimate identifiability of putative hybrid gulls, 
use of abbreviations such as "P10" to identify individual feathers in a 
gulls wing, belief among the afflicted that they can use single images 
posted online to determine the genetic makeup of individual 
hybrid/intergrade gulls on the basis of obscure characteristics such as 
gonydeal angle and skull shape.   Cures: none.

I enjoy watching gulls and trying to sort them out as much as the next 
person.  Many can be actually identified to be relatively "pure" (if such a 
thing exists) renditions of a SINGLE species.  However, my starting point is 
the belief that there will be a significant portion of the gulls I see that 
are hybrids and intergrades that I will not be able to identify.  In the 
company of others with a similar level of curiosity I occasionally share my 
opinions (barely educated as they are) on what the parentage of a particular 
bird might be.  Yet I realize if I go online and start posting such ideas to 
the birding masses I am urinating into a stiff breeze.

The large (pink-footed) gulls in our region are a genetic train wreck.  Like 
car wrecks we can't resist the temptation to stop and look, but all we see 
is the mangled result and we have no real idea what caused it.  I have been 
carrying on a running conversation with Steve Mlodinow about some 
interesting gulls we found at Eugene's Alton Baker Park two weeks ago.  Here 
is a response he sent me last night.  In short it mirrors my own attitude 
about the reliability of identifying gulls.

"Methinks among pink-footed gulls (ie, not RBGU, etc) that 10% not truly 
identifiable would be great. The more of these hybridoids I look at, the 
more skeptical I become...."

Hopefully, gulls threads will not overrun OBOL as they have with other 
listservs.

Dave Irons
Eugene, OR