Keen to get out for a full days' birding on Saturday, and I hadn't met up with Gary since well before xmas, so the plan for a day out took shape when on Friday the confirmation of Britains' first ever Slaty-backed Gull at Rainham in Essex sealed the agenda.
I picked Gary up at 6am, followed by Josh then James. A confident crew arriving in plenty of time (at 6.45 about an hour before light) at the Riverside car park near Rainham Marshes in Essex on the Thames .
A few things to say about both the site and our target before proceeding. Firstly I spent 6 years driving from West Sussex to Barking on a daily basis, taking the very same same route, and nothing against the good people of this part of Essex (some of which remain good friends) but if the world were likened to body parts this particular area would either be in the vicinity of the rectum or deep in the armpit, not least for the aroma. Secondly on the avian front - I hate Gulls !! Maybe it's due to their scavenging habits around refuse, the unappealing gull squawk or their ability to look identical across multiple species (and in Sussex Gull numbers even in coastal areas are relatively small). I respect those birders who nonchalantly scan through a gull flock individually identifying and ageing each participant. I believe I suffer from the ornithological disease called 'Gull-Blur', which means that a scan through a gull flock results in the afflicted proceeding with swearing and cursing and pronouncing 'they all look the bloody same'.
So how to describe the next nine hours is tricky. Our vague plan was to assume (and we were all fairly confident) that we would find and see the SB Gull well enough at some point in the morning to allow for the second half of the day birding elsewhere, probably in Kent with various other target species...........
After a short stroll from the car in half-light we found the viewing area where the gull had been seen the previous day. We stood at the top of a tall muddy bank that had little room between the muddy slope down to the path and the chain-link fence - joined by 700+ other birders ! The other side of the fence were a few thorny bushes that allowed a just-better-than-partial scope view through the fence to the rubbish tip which rose high into the distance. The fresh refuse was being worked by bulldozers in the morning, and amongst the flying mattresses a couple of thousand gulls foraged and this is where our target bird had been seen the previous day. The only downside was that feet positioning had to be certain to prevent a backwards tumble and soon the mud had a concreting effect on the legs. Despite the strong wind being head on making standing for a small length of time marginally uncomfortable, there were some positives .... the temperature was in theory around 10c, although very grey skies at least no rain, the stench from tip didn't seem too strong until after the bulldozers had stopped working around midday.
Needless to say the bird in question was a no-show.
About 2pm we walked a few hundred yards to view another field where the dispersed Gulls were resting and then back again until we gave up the day at last light (around 4pm). Along with the several thousand commoner gull species, supporting cast members included 4 Caspian Gulls, 3 Yellow-legged Gulls, an Albinistic/leucistic Herring Gull, a single 1w White-fronted Goose and some distant Wigeon and Pintail.
The company was good and we had a laugh (mainly at ourselves), and as can happen with all birding excursions even with the best of planning the birds do their own thing, so a bad days birding is always better than a good day in the office (a borrowed cliche !). However in these days of human rights even a convicted felon would not be forced to stand in mud staring relentlessly at refuse for 9 hours.
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| Several hundred birders either staring at rubbish or taking a break on the path. - all asking why ? |
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