We are in Tampa for a couple of days. Thurs. we moved to a different hotel and the new one is right on the bay. We sat on the balcony and watched gulls and blackbirds flitting about for awhile. Then a new bird showed up and another just like it. I hadn’t thought of any of the shore birds as “gulls” just as sea, shore, birds, like that. So I got out my Sibley book I take around with me and didn’t find the gull section right off, puzzled over it and finally thought “GULL” and fastly found what I was looking for, eventually. At first it was evident that these new birds were different and after seeing a bird ID that is considered Rare in the book for this area I got out my Canon Digital Rebel camera and took several photos with my Canon long lens.
Satisfied that I had recorded enough digital data of the birds I sat down and looked hard at the identifying points in the Sibley book and realized that part of the ID I’d made was based on thinking and not thinking at the same time, with outside influence of my 10-year-old daughter pointing at the book. Right there on the previous page was a common bird, yeah, Laughing at me.
No matter. Laughing Gulls in juvenile feathers, then two come along in brilliant mature spring array. Worth a bumbling ID and some picture moments.
The Only Writer on this blog, the only decent recent picture of just me, from AUG 1994 in the Smokies. Note
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