Torture

There's supposed to be a couple of juvenile Caspian Gulls and a mixture of ages of Yellow-legged Gulls at Amwell at present. So I settled myself down in the Gladwin Hide and after half an hour was asking myself why do I subject myself to this torture.

As in any field there are those that are good at it, and those that are good at Gull identification probably would have picked out any likely candidates within five minutes. Well that's definitely not me. I keep referring back to the guides to remind myself of the differences and then double check by which time the bird I've been studying has moved out of my scope view, so then I need to find it again, then check the guides again etc. etc. Fortunately there was no one else in the hide to witness this incompetent behaviour, although the presence of a responsible adult may well have been welcome.

Anyway for what it's worth I think this bird seemed to be "unusual". I was initially drawn to it as its grey was darker than most of the other grey gulls around and its head was rather angular and missing any streaking on the back of the head. Now having gone through over 40 photos and all my guide books I'm still not going to say whether it's a Herring Gull or a Yellow-legged Gull. I just don't know, and for a pedant like me that means no tick in the Yellow-legged Gull box today. I really should learn from this. Herring Gulls, Yellow-legged Gulls, Caspian Gulls, once upon a time I was just happy to call them seagulls.