Date: 3/13/26 7:19 pm From: Carol Riddell via Tweeters <tweeters...> Subject: [Tweeters] A Gull Named Bob
Hey Tweets,
Okay. Showing my age here. How many still alive and still subscribing to Tweeters remember the ID controversy of Bob? Marv Breece does because his excellent photo of Bob appears on page 67 of Gene Hunn’s Birding in Seattle and King County (2d ed.) with some accompanying text on page 68. Bob appeared each winter between 2004 and 2009, in both the Kent Valley and the south end of Lake Washington (Cedar River mouth). Bob always inspired lively debates over his/her ID. Iceland nominate glaucoides? Thayer’s? Kumlien’s? Runt Glaucous Gull? Those were fun times to listen in on the debates of local experts. I don’t think Bob ever got a definitive ID, but Gene Hunn did get in the last word! Those were good times when Tweeters was the definitive place to share and discuss birding information. Now we have eBird, Facebook groups, WhatsApp groups by county, and Tweeters still limping along. I rue the balkanization of our sharing and discussing birds. When everyone came to the discussion table at Tweeters, it allowed new birders to benefit from more experienced birders and for lots of people to get to know each other statewide.
It is fun to see that even an expert such as Amar Ayyash is reluctant to give a definitive ID based on the Hadley-Robinson photo of the Cedar River mouth gull. But such fun to puzzle over the photo and to be humbled by gull identification. At least Amar did not offer the possibility of a runt Glaucous Gull! It is an Iceland Gull of some race. Thanks so much Jane, for sharing the photo, the various Tweeters opinions, as well as that of Amar. And I second Jane’s recommendation for his excellent 2024 Gull Guide.
