title: GAM in R with categorical AND continuous variables?
body: <p>Wanting to see the effects of multiple variables on grey seal abundance (data collected from my MSc research) using a GAM or GAMM in R.
  My response variable is total count, and I have continuous variables of temperature, windspeed and categorical variables of month, season and tide (low/high).</p>
  
  <p>gam(YthanCount$Total~s(YthanCount$Temperature)+s(YthanCount$Windspeed)</p>
  
  <p>The above model is for the two continuous variables....but I am just generally unsure what an appropriate model would be, and if I would be better using GAMM with a smoother over time (data collection period).</p>
  
  <p>Can I create a model with all of my continuous and categorical variables?</p>
  
  <p>Sorry if this is confusing, I am new to GAMs and GAMMs...!</p>