Article in: Take Kids Birding
Three Cheers for the Ring-billed Gull?
While at the Midwest Birding Symposium in Lakeside, Ohio last weekend the Birdfreaks’ Mom netted two LIFERS: a Greater Black-backed Gull and a Bonaparte’s Gull. I don’t always give gulls a lot of credt: I tend to look through them to find terns and “better” birds.
One of a “million” Ring-billed Gulls around Lakeside, Ohio
So, why post at all about a Ring-billed Gull? Because these photos were possible. Not that Dakota (age 14) actually took these photos but because this gull stayed…right there! two feet away for many minutes. We were given something that the fall Blackpolls could not manage: details and photos. One Ring-billed Gull gave us the photo op to do what so many photographers and young or new birders need: experience and practice!
Any new birder with a camera could benefit from this common bird
Finding detail makes us excited about birds
Birding takes practice and patience. You have to learn how to use cameras, binoculars and even how to id birds. There is a lot to observe. Plants that don’t move, birds that are practically tame and little bugs close to the ground are great starting points to get kids involved – and if they love it then, they will grow up and want to save it! 
One of Dakota’s first photos at age 11
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