A bright sunny winter morning and a good chance for a walk along the River Thames at Erith. This stretch of river has become famous for its numbers and varieties of gulls, attracted by the large rubbish tip on the Essex side of the river. It also has a large mudflat exposed at low tide which makes it a good site for wintering wading birds.
I started at Riverside Gardens and had very quickly recorded all 5 commoner gull species (Black-headed, Common, Herring, Lesser black-backed and Greater black-backed) along with a good number of Redshank feeding on the mud.
I then walked along the front towards the Pier without adding to my sightings. In the area enclosed by the pier, Black-tailed Godwits, more Redshank plus a single Lapwing were seen along with a single Ruddy Turnstone. A dozen or so Teal plus a few mallard fed at the edge of the exposed mud.
Retracing my steps back through Riverside Gardens, a rather clean looking gull on a groyne caught my eye amongst the many others present. A closer look revealed it to be slightly smaller than a Herring Gull (one was conveniently standing next to it), had dull pale legs, a dark eye and that very clean plumage that had first drawn my attention to it. Now Gull Id is not my strongest forte but this bird had all the characteristics of an adult Caspian Gull in winter plumage. This species of gull is often overlooked due to its close resemblance to Herring Gull (which has pink legs and a pale eye and is marked on head and neck in winter plumage) but has been regularly recorded at this site.
After a while I carried on and came to the end of the gardens. One final look upstream towards Thamesmead and there on the mud was a feeding Avocet, not a common bird for the London area. An hours walk and some very good birds and a nice walk on a lovely crisp clear winters day.
Of course, the weather had the last say and by the time I got back to Eltham it was snowing!
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