Gulls

To the vast majority of non birders a big, squawky white bird that shits all over your car at the coast is a Seagull. To a birder there is no such thing as a Seagull except of course for Jonathan Livingston Seagull which I once read a long, long time ago. There are all sorts of 'Gulls' but most definitely no 'Seagulls' except for the aforementioned ficticious Jonathan Livingston. To the non birder trying to clean the shit off his or her pride and joy it's pretty obvious that they don't give a crap what sort of bird did it but to the birder it makes all the difference in the world.  There are people who absolutely love Gulls, they love to visit garbage/refuse dumps and bodies of water where they tend to congregate (both the birders and the gulls). Now these birders or Larophiles as they are known get their jollies in the identification of the big white squawky birds that just shit on your car.

Here's a selection of Gulls from my travels, I think I've got the ID right but if any Larophile reading this knows better please let me know.

Laughing Gulls

Ring-billed Gull

American Herring Gull

Heermanns Gull

California Gull

Western Gull

A typical Larophile Blog Confessions of a Larophile