To All The Gulls I've Loved Before

 

It is that time of the birding year in Ontario when thoughts turn to the family Laridae (gulls), as reflected by recent posts by others in my blog roll.

I would really like to get in on the action, but I have nothing rare to report (I never do) and no bragging rights to exercise (although there was that Slaty-backed from last year...). Anyway, failing that I thought I would give a personal gull retrospective. All taxonomy is according to The Clements Checklist.

I guess a good place to start is with the numbers. There are 52 species of gull worldwide. I might as well own up that I have personally ticked the following 24:

1. Black-legged Kittiwake
2. Sabine's Gull
3. Slender-billed Gull
4. Boneparte's Gull
5. Black-headed Gull
6. Little Gull
7. Laughing Gull
8. Franklin's Gull
9. Sooty Gull
10. Heerman's Gull
11. Mew Gull
12. Ring-billed Gull
13. Western Gull
14. California Gull
15. Herring Gull
16. Yellow-legged Gull
17. Armenian Gull
18. Thayer's Gull
19. Iceland Gull
20. Lesser Black-backed Gull
21. Slaty-backed Gull
22. Glaucous-winged Gull
23. Glaucous Gull
24. Great Black-backed Gull

That's almost half of the world's gulls, and if all goes according to plan I should be ticking Kelp Gull and Hartlaub's Gull in a month or so. Fingers crossed!
 

As well, gulls like to hybridize and I have observed what I think (or have been told) were the following hybrid crosses:

1. Herring X Great Black-backed Gull
2. Herring X Glaucous Gull (Nelson's Gull)
3. Western X Glaucous-winged Gull

Which only leaves me to confess my most wanted gull. For some bird families it might be a difficult choice for me, but in this case it is crystal clear: Ross's Gull.