I used to study animal management and there was a lecturer who wrote his uni thesis on “seagulls” and any time he heard someone call them seagulls he’d shout down the hallway “They’re herring gulls!”
Seagulls are not just herring gulls though. The term is used for any gulls people see near the sea. In the UK that’s herring, great black backed & and lesser black backed, black headed, common, and kittiwakes.
A birdwatching friend of mine has decided that if he ever discovers a new species, he’s naming it “seagull” regardless of where he finds it or what it looks like just to piss off all the ornithologists.
I used to study animal management and there was a lecturer who wrote his uni thesis on “seagulls” and any time he heard someone call them seagulls he’d shout down the hallway “They’re herring gulls!”
Seagulls are not just herring gulls though. The term is used for any gulls people see near the sea. In the UK that’s herring, great black backed & and lesser black backed, black headed, common, and kittiwakes.
A birdwatching friend of mine has decided that if he ever discovers a new species, he’s naming it “seagull” regardless of where he finds it or what it looks like just to piss off all the ornithologists.