We decided to throw caution to the wind and drive down to Rainham on the off-chance & look for the Slaty-backed Gull that had been frequenting the Veolia Landfill site, since middle of January.
We arrived at Rainham on a very dull, cloudy & wet morning. Bugger, I hate rain and it was chucking it down. We began the mile or so walk, out towards the tip and began scanning the melee of gulls that were foraging amongst the garbage. After about 10 -15 minutes or so, I caught site of a large heavy chested “Black-backed” gull in flight, dark hooded around the eye and streaked around the head and neck. It appeared bigger than the Herring Gulls, but quickly disappeared. I mentioned the bird to Richard & Rod, then again it appeared and this time at least Richard was able to get on it. It certainly looked like our bird and remembering features from recent articles, I noticed a pale yellow coloured bill but the obvious features to me were the size and the head pattern and pale grey-black upper-parts and broad white trailing edge to the secondaries.
We glimpsed the bird another time and I managed to see, albeit briefly, the so called “String of Pearls” patterning in the primaries, a feature I had not seen on a “Black-backed Gull” before.
I was reasonably happy with the views, although all to brief for my liking. We carried on watching the tip and scanning the many hundreds of Gulls for at least a further hour or so and eventually, soaking wet, decided to wander back to the visitors centre for a cuppa.
As we wandered back, discussing the views of the bird, I noticed a large gull flying towards us, I put my bins on the bird and immediately noticed the streaked head and face, a heavy chest and grey black back & mantle, immediately shouting, “Get On This Bird”, sure enough this was our bird. Again all too brief a view but sufficient enough to say we have seen it. Shortly afterwards the bird was seen on the tip and later in the morning it was seen on the reserve from one of the hides.
Disappointing views really of what seems to be a cracking bird. I would have really liked to have seen it on the ground for a period of time, sufficient to really be able to study it.
As the bird was in the area and the previous weekend had been performing on the marshes on the Sunday, I decided to come back to Rainham with Barrie on Sunday. A real disappointment, with no sightings at all during the day and very few “Large’ gulls in the area. Best bird of the day was a “Ringtail” Hen Harrier. So I guess for now I’ll have to be grateful for the views I’ve had and see what transpires with the record once the BBRC have scrutinised it.
