Possible Slaty-backed Gull

[Ukwildlifeo]

Originally Posted by jerryh

I understand that there were about 1200 people on site this afternoon!
Jerry

So both car parks full then! I noticed Howards put the bird in big bold wrting on elbf, something I've not seen before!

[RoyW]

Originally Posted by Wild-Woman

There were thousands and thousands over the landfill site next to the marshes on thursday. Wouldn't mind betting there's one or two rarities in that lot that haven't been spotted yet.

I don't think that many slip the net at Rainham!

Originally Posted by jerryh

I understand that there were about 1200 people on site this afternoon!
Jerry

Technically they were almost all offsite if you mean "Rainham RSPB reserve" as the site.

Originally Posted by Robert S J Smith

just a few people dipped then lol.

But there's always a chance tomorrow - and the tip will be working again from Monday morning!

Originally Posted by Ukwildlifeo

So both car parks full then! I noticed Howards put the bird in big bold wrting on elbf, something I've not seen before!

All car parks and all available space along the entrance track (obviously I was only there to help out and had no interest in seeing the bird).

It has to be a "mega" for big bold writing on the ELBF website (I think that the last was White-tailed Plover, also at Rainham, last July).

[thebeard]

sometimes i think with gulls that some people really are clutching at straws. I suppose if you spend a lot of time studying big flocks of them, you will know what you're looking at, but to me that looks like any old gull haha! nearest i'd have said was herring, but i had no idea before this morning that there was such thing as a slaty-backed gull!

what a good sighting if its accepted though.

now to brush up on my gull id

[htcdude]

Originally Posted by thebeard

sometimes i think with gulls that some people really are clutching at straws. I suppose if you spend a lot of time studying big flocks of them, you will know what you're looking at, but to me that looks like any old gull haha! nearest i'd have said was herring, but i had no idea before this morning that there was such thing as a slaty-backed gull!

what a good sighting if its accepted though.

now to brush up on my gull id

I know what you mean there, if I'd seen that gull it would've been marked down as one of the more common ones, but the guy who found it, Dominic Mitchell is quite a respected birder and knows his stuff, like you said if you spend enough time looking at the common gulls it's a lot easier to recognise differences when other gulls turn up

[Ukwildlifeo]

Its turned up at Pitsea landfill site, which I can see from where I sit. It maybe one of the 1000s of gulls I can see flying around from here!

[htcdude]

Good luck with finding it! I don't think many got it when it was at Rainham, and there was 1200 people there!

Nige

[Ukwildlifeo]

Originally Posted by htcdude

Good luck with finding it! I don't think many got it when it was at Rainham, and there was 1200 people there!

Nige

I doubt I'd be able to distinguish it if it was only a few feet away, and the tip is a fair way away from the park, so the odds are low. Especially when Im not that bothered about seeing it! lol

[thebeard]

look for the pale mirror #9 apparently....

or something like that !