Behind the Ironic Column

In theory, I *should* be practicing my gull identification skills.  They’re walking around in the Park blocks and making themselves about as available as it’s possible to be.  I like to watch them as they’re out for a stroll — checking on whatever leftovers the lunchtime folks have left, and inspecting the new grass that’s trying to come up in some of the bare spots.  But I don’t feel an urgent need to know exactly which gulls they are.

As any birding person will attest, gulls are difficult to separate out correctly because there are so many winter and juvenile plumages.  Not to mention cross-breeding. Not that one can’t do it, but it’s not an easy project.  And it gets into more detail that I really care about.  So I’m happy to believe what the experts tell me and willing to cede that bit of specialized knowledge.  I think part of this is that gulls aren’t birds I really expect to see every day.  This is purely conditioning on my part because in fact I do see them many days.  But I grew up in a landlocked part of North Carolina, far away from gull habitat, and that’s where my reflexive opinions originate.  I know they’re gulls, not albatrosses or terns or some other seabird, and I don’t have to know more than that. 

A warbler, on the other hand, will cause me to spend hours looking at the bird and referring to various books,  consulting with fellow birders, and generally trying to nail down exactly what bird it is.  They also have confusing plumages — and aren’t nearly as obliging at staying in one spot as the winter gulls are — but they’re just more exciting to me.

So I say hello to the gulls as I walk through the park, and I watch to see what they’re going to do next, but I don’t bring out my book to compare plumages.  In some ways, it’s like the people in the park that I don’t really know.  I may recognize them because they’re there every day, but I don’t know their names.  We say hello and pass on — not becoming too involved in each others lives. 

I’m glad to see the people and the gulls — and that’s enough.

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