Regarding the Costa Blanca Bird Club’s trip to the Mar Menor, where a Ring-billed Gull was claimed, subsequent exhaustive studies suggest that it was, indeed, a young Yellow legged Gull. Which tends to show that a gathering of ‘experts’ can still get it wrong on occasion. I have, personally, made a few howlers in my time, once identifying a Black Stork as a bin-liner, and screeching to a halt, yelling ‘Geese!’ when I passed a field full of upended horse troughs. The important thing, of course, is to be prepared to admit your mistake.