Well, the plan was that I was to be at the Wash, wader ringing for the weekend, but what with recent grief, I only got as far as London and had to turn back for home. So to salvage something from the weekend I was lucky enough to join Steve for another good day at Pitsea Tip. We arrived on site at around just on 08:00hrs and it was wet, grey and misty making viewing conditions not great. There were plenty of large gulls on site and we spoke about the Slaty Backed not being present at Rainham yesterday and hoped we might be lucky enough to get a second hit of the beast, however that hope was soon banished when the pager reported a message of it present at Wennington marsh, Rainham. Steve gave ex Essex & now Norfolk birder Ian Prentice a call advising him that the Slaty Backed was present at Rainham as Ian was in the area visiting family. After that we were kept busy going through the gulls, hoping for a white winger and getting a couple of Caspian Gull's. It was shortly after that Steve picked up the Slaty Backed and this time it was a much calmer situation and whilst Steve tried to get some shots I tried to obtain some video footage. At this point Ian Prentice rang up Steve advising that there was hardly any one at Rainham and Steve advised him that the bird was now at Pitsea tip. We had roughly 8-10 minutes on the bird before we lost it and then we did not see it again. Other sightings today included 4 Caspian Gulls. 1 st, 2 2nd & 1 3rd winter. The 3rd winter was another Green ringed bird. The photos of the Caspian's will be uploaded tomorrow, as time does not permit this evening.
The photos above were taken during the rain, for "top class" images of this bird go to : http://www.birdersplayground.co.uk/Index.html
We left the tip at just 15:00hrs and went over to Wat Tyler where a group of around 20 birders were present watching the Slaty Backed on Vange Wick marsh, although distant it did fly up, towards Wat Tyler and banked over back towards the tip where it gave more than reasonable flight views through the scope and "well done" to the birder who picked it up way out on Vange Wick, oh by the way Ian saw the Slaty Backed...
