Way (way) back on March 4, 2005 - I photographed this interesting "Herring Gull" at the Glanbrook Landfill outside of Hamilton, Ontario... At the time, our American Herring Gulls were known to have dark tails. Whereas European Herring Gulls had mottled white tails with a dark band at the tip. Vega Herring Gulls were somewhere in-between.
Surely this bird was a strong candidate for a European Herring Gull. Right?
Interesting birds like this were discussed on the ID-Frontiers listserv at the time. Many "big wigs" of North American Gull ID were quick to chime in - that is looked excellent for European Herring Gull! The only problem was that a number of keen European gullers thought it looked whack (i.e., not like any European Herring Gull they were used to seeing).
Unfortunately, there never really was a clear cut answer. Birders, as usual, fell into the camps of "it's clearly a yes" to "you clearly need to say no" to "we just never know sometimes!" ... Which, can be kind of frustrating. 20 years later, usually on facebook or discord, the same thing happens today. An interesting bird is posted, there is a rush of (possibly attention seeking) folk who yell out their split second thoughts, some people say "clearly yes", some people say "clearly no"... Sometimes, someone even puts a lot of thought and effort into a detailed reply.
But nothing really happens in the end. Similar to the 2005 gull, the discussion is ultimately lost. Today, if you're not chronically online, there's a good chance you will have missed it entirely.
After >2 decades of experiencing this happen over and over - I've had some thoughts... About what was happening, and what we could do better.
I the simplest terms - keen birders were a bit "starved" for material (or knowledge) to consume. There was only so many journals, newsletters or field guides out there.
The internet & digital cameras created an explosion of "content". But even into the early years of the 2010's, you could still "run out" of things to view in an evening on your computer. This blog was part of that era. Even if it was a bit "slop"y - it was still something.
Today, the "slop" has completely taken over. We are in the era of the attention economy (have a read, it's worth it). It's bad for our health & well-being.
So what could be done?
We could just ignore it, and continue to let everything get sloppier and sloppier...
Another thought - is to try to de-slop birding information. It won't be a crowd pleaser, it won't get the most likes on facebook. It won't help people sell books or tours. But it could be interesting (and valuable) if a small group of people put some effort on improving the dissemination of birding knowledge - away from social media websites that are rotting our brains.
So how would that work?
Take my interesting Herring Gull as an example. Since the observation, it's become clear that birds with a striking tail pattern like this, are rare but regular - particularly in the Great Lakes.
Hamilton - Sep 25, 2011
The frequency of sightings was high enough that it seemed unlikely true vagrant European Herring Gulls were showing up in my hometown. The most logical explanation was that it represents just how variable first year American Herring Gulls likely are. A less likely explanation is that there are European-influenced Herring Gulls are nesting somewhere in North America - perhaps not unlike Lesser Black-backed Gulls - although the molt timing (advanced 1st basic molt on the bird shown above) may not support a northerly nesting population.
This still isn't an "answer" to the identification - but how many keen birders are aware of these birds occurring in North America?
My proposal lands here - in the age of online brain-melting (and polarizing) social media slop - the community could try to 100% reverse course. Instead of trying to add more and more material to the internet - synthesize it !! Act as a birding encyclopedia if you will.
Gather, summarize, and organize our knowledge into an accessible space - free of social media algorithms - and free in the monetary sense as well. Many birders will prefer to see how they "rank" on eBird, rather than take part - but at least our notable learning opportunities won't constantly be lost to the digital abyss - for the small number who are keen to learn more. Perhaps equally as important, this learning material won't require you to be chronically online to see it.
I feel a notable rise in illusory superiority or a growing egocentric bias, in our little hobby - which is becoming a new roadblock to change... Especially when combined with a standard expectation of people who just don't like change... But more on that some other time!
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