Am I too gullible?

So I posted a week or so ago about how I wanted to learn how to ID white headed gulls this year. And I asked for suggestions / advice on how to learn and got some useful tips so I am sharing them here.

Here are some of the posts and responses I got:

Posted to BlueSky

OK I know this will be one of the craziest things I have ever posted, but in 2025 I have decided I really want to learn how to identify seagulls. Suggestions for best places to start learning would be welcome. #birds

— Jonathan Eisen (@phylogenomics.bsky.social) 2025-01-19T17:57:16.596Z

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/browse…

— Tom Buckner (@justanotherant.bsky.social) 2025-01-19T22:58:48.024Z

I think out on the west coast of the US that’s a particularly tricky challenge! There’s an excellent new photographic guide for N. American gulls – press.princeton.edu/books/paperb…. Also @alvarosadventures.bsky.social is based out there and runs excellent gull ID workshops!

— Liam Langley (@liamlangley1.bsky.social) 2025-01-20T09:18:59.489Z

nice! for one, the best NA field guide ever was recently published here: http://www.amazon.com/Gull-Guide-N…As for process, pick the 1-3 most common species in your area and study them exhaustively, when something odd shows up, it will stick out.

— Andy Boyce (@andyjboyce.bsky.social) 2025-01-19T18:07:20.650Z

And Also Posted to X

And on Facebook got some really good suggestions

A friend from high school pointed me to Jack Laws and all his amaxzing materials including https://johnmuirlaws.com/gull-identification-guide-free-download/

Another person pointed me to this book: https://www.amazon.com/Gulls-Simplified-Comparative-Approach-Identification/dp/0691156948

And someone else pointed me to this: https://thecottonwoodpost.net/2023/10/12/gull-identification-in-puget-sound/

Unknown's avatar

Author: Jonathan Eisen

I am an evolutionary biologist and a Professor at U. C. Davis. (see my lab site here). My research focuses on the origin of novelty (how new processes and functions originate). To study this I focus on sequencing and analyzing genomes of organisms, especially microbes and using phylogenomic analysis

2 thoughts on “Am I too gullible?”

  1. Oh, that’s just awful! Took me a minute to realize it wasn’t that someone had advocated some outstanding avian disinformation, but was instead a play—or rather, war—on innocent words. My eyes hurt.

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