Thursday 17 February 2011

Slaty Backed Gull - Tick and Run!

When Dominic Mitchell found the Slaty Backed Gull at Rainham a few weeks back I decided to give the mega twitch a miss knowing it would be madness over at Rainham Marshes, and with over 1000 people dipping that day I wasn't wrong. Up until a week ago less than 40 people had connected with this mega rare bird, with it seemingly touring Essex and who knows where else. Then yesterday it was refound at Rainham and seemingly playing ball for a lot of the time. With news again today that it was showing on Wennington Marsh and the opportunity to get out of work early for once, I worked through lunch and left work at about 2pm. Via a train, bus and car I found myself at Rainham about an hour later, along with 50+ others.

The gull was viewable for about 30 minutes distantly, providing pretty good scope views, until a Peregrine flushed all the gulls and off they went, with the SBG flying strongly south east.

Gulls don't exactly rock my boat, but I am glad to get this mega rare one on my list.

2 comments:

  1. It was pure luck - it happened to linger on Wennington Marsh on the only afternoon I could leave work early.

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