Gulling is complicated!

Right now I can't think of any other group of birds that has larger variation than gulls. Maybe it don't exist. Still there has do be something that makes us watch them, follow their every move. Looking up ID articles on the internet,  reading peoples comments to new discoveries, follow ringed birds, reading throw books. It seems that birding has something more to it.

Just recently I have wondered why we keep resourcing and trying to get more information. Why can't we just walk past it and say it's a bird? Personally, I have never managed to make up a good answer to that question. Still, I keep it up. Take photos, reads. I think that these questions isn't that important actually. The main thing is that we do.

Well, this wasn't supposed to be so philosophical. I was actually reading about Common Gulls. Which isn't that bad. Still they have an enormous variations.

Martin Garner just posted (2 hours ago) a post about Russian Common Gulls (ssp heinei). This made me think, and of course search the internet for more... I didn't find a whole lot more about them. A lot of literature seems to describe canus and heinei in the same block, something that shows how small differences there are. Martins gull looks really good. Still, how could we know that it isn't a extreme extreme canus? Do anybody know how weird a canus can look? We have only tried to identify birds since the 19something and it's clear that there is so much to learn. The digital photo world has made it easier, but there isn't enough photos of Common Gulls yet. We need a lot of rings on the birds as pullus. First then we can get photos of extreme variation.

Even harder than Common Gulls is the Iceland problem. What is a Kumlien's? When can we put it at the back of (or front in English) the "Iceland Gull"? GullDK just posted this one. It gets your mind running! I agrees with the points, still I think that we need more people resourcing on it. Personally I am a fan of the Kumlien's=hybrid between Thayer's and Iceland. It kind of explain every variation in the range. At least if the hybrids is reproductive!