After seeing the Oriental Turtle Dove, we all had a whisky from the hip flask off the Doc at 8.00am to celebrate. The next target bird was the Slaty-backed Gull at Rainham Marshes. We arrived on site in London for about 10.30am, but you could see that people were leaving, as some of them, including Dan Pointon, had been looking since first light. We set up our scopes, looking over towards the tip, when Chris Batty ran past me, saying it's on Wennington Marsh now! What a stampede! I rang Dan whilst legging it, who was just walking back from the marsh and knew nothing about the bird as he had just left there. I continued to run, which seemed forever with at least 100 birders with me. I saw Dan on top of the hill and gave it a final sprint; there it was in Dan's scope! Yes, U Bastard at last! The bird just sat there in the middle of the marsh preening and then lifted its head. All of us were so made up, as we weren’t expecting to see this bird after another day of standing around in January for the day and not seeing the bird. We watched the bird for a good half an hour and then headed back to the car after another whisky from the lucky flask! We would now have to wait and see if the BBRC would accept the bird!
Slaty-backed Gull
Me, knackered after running halfway around the reserve
Birders on site
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