The Franklin's Gull in London 16th July 2024

On Saturday afternoon, the 13th of July, a first summer Franklin's Gull was discovered at the outfall of the Crossness Water Treatment Works which lies by the River Thames near Erith in Kent.

The outfall attracts huge numbers of mainly Black headed Gulls that come to feed on the tiny food particles discharged by the large volume of water being expelled from the pumping station into the Thames.

Franklin's Gull breeds in the central provinces of Canada and adjacent states in the northern USA and migrates to spend the winter in Argentina, The Caribbean, Chile and Peru. Prior to this individual it has been recorded 86 times in Britain and 19 times in Ireland. 

In London it has only been recorded once before, again at Crossness in April 2000.

I was occupied for most of the weekend and the following Monday so Tuesday would be the first day I could go if I wished. I had however severe reservations about making the trip as to get to Crossness from Oxfordshire is a real pain. It either entails crossing London from west to east and having to  pay the congestion charge and putting up with horrendous stop start  traffic or take an enormous circuitous route via motorways around London which almost doubles the mileage and journey time but at least allows you keep on the move.

I have been to Crossness only once before to see another North American gull - a Bonaparte's Gull that was feeding at this very same outfall.That was in June 2018 and I recall the journey being a complete nightmare and when, with difficulty we finally got there, it entailed over a mile long walk along the Thames Path to access the outfall.

Having already seen three Franklin's Gulls in Britain I was happy to let this one pass.

Here are the three I have already seen in Britain:

The first was, remarkably, at my local Farmoor Reservoir in Oxfordshire, that is when it used to have birds! It was in the gull roost from the 17th to the 28th of August 2002 as it moulted its flight feathers.

My second was in March 2007 at Lelant in West Cornwall.

The third was also in a gull roost at Ibsley Water in Hampshire on the 1st of November 2014.

I spoke to Mark who lives in the next village to mine and he was keen to go having never seen a Franklin's Gull and as he offered to drive this put a different complexion on matters. He too could only go on Tuesday so we set this as the day when we would go. 

I suggested we relax in the meantime and see if the gull remained over the coming days and if it did, once we heard news of it on Tuesday, which should be reasonably early, we would set off for Crossness.

The gull was seen regularly on both Sunday and Monday, the last report of it on Monday being at 7.30pm and I went to bed that night content we would be going to Crossness on Tuesday morning. I even suggested to Mark we delayed our departure until 9am so we would miss the worst of the traffic. 

Tuesday arrived and I checked Birdguides at 7.30am but there was no report of the gull.I re-checked at 8am and again there was nothing about the gull.I called Mark and we discussed what to do.We agreed to leave it until 9am but Mark later sent me a text saying 

Let's take a chance and go

Mark came to my house as agreed at 9am and we had a coffee.There was still no positive report of the gull at Crossness but chatter on social media suggested it  was most likely somewhere nearby and could appear at the outfall at any moment

Now here is a familiar quandary that assails us twitching folk.Stick or bust is I believe the common parlance for the situation we now found ourselves in.

I was confident that the gull would turn up at Crossness at some point in the day but Mark, less used to this kind of situation began to waiver, especially when checking the weather forecast which predicted a good chance of rain.

In the end we agreed a compromise.

Let's go to Farmoor and if it comes on Birdguides while we are there we can set off immediately I suggested

On arriving at Farmoor, the reservoir was at its most depressing with virtually no birds to see. Just the usual scruffy Mallards, a  gaggle of Greylag Geese, Coots and one Black headed Gull that flew off. Meeting Phil on the causeway we retired to the cafe, telling him about the gull and how we had been  all set to go but it looked like it was not there.

We sat with our coffees and chatted, glumly looking out to the bleak waters of the reservoir.Almost without thinking I checked my phone expecting very little but instead learnt the gull had recently  flown in to feed at the outfall and was -

Showing well !!

It was 11am

It's back Mark. Let's go, a lifer awaits you!

Still uncertain Mark was dragged along in the wake of my new found enthusiasm and we boarded his Landrover Discovery and set forth for distant Crossness.

In the rush we had not really thought things through and dithered about which route to take.In the end we made the wrong choice and ended up crossing London which was predictably a complete and utter driving nightmare.Traffic hell. To add to our woes  Mark's car fell outside the ULEZ parameters and by going across the centre of London it meant we also had to pay the Congestion Charge. For once I managed to master the technology on my phone and paid both charges online.

Three hours later, frazzled and edgy from all the frustrations of the car journey from hell we drew up to a kerb in Lytham Close, as instructed by Birdguides, and prepared to walk along the adjacent Thames Path for half a mile which would bring us to the outfall at Crossness.

Did I mention a sewage outfall? You could hardly mistake it as a malodorous sickly sweet pong hung on the air and got ever stronger as we headed for the outfall.There was no escaping it.The River Thames was right by the path but the tide was a very long way out so vast banks of glistening mud stretched away from us to the distant river, currently a shining ribbon whilst on the far shore, strange shaped cargo vessels were moored alongside an ugly industrial landscape which would be depressing were it not for the romance of the river.

Our view of the river from the outfall after the tide had come in.Note the large number of gulls dotted on the water

We met a birder coming our way along the path.

Please let him say it's there and showing well I muttered to Mark

On enquiring of the gull we were told it had been at the outfall but had just flown off in our direction

Keep an eye on the river it will be somewhere along here we were told

Considering there were about a thousand gulls scattered over the acres of exposed mud it was not an enticing option.

Come on Mark we may as well wait at the outfall.It's bound to return there 

Rose ringed Parrakeets screeched from some nearby poplars which pleased Mark as he could add them to his year list  

On getting to the unoffical viewpoint that overlooks the outfall we found four other birders standing forlornly by a retaining wall as hordes of frenzied Black headed Gulls swam below, moving mesmerisingly back and fore, round and round at the perimeter of the outfall, picking morsels from the churning water.

The sewage outfall

I realised that two of the birders were friends from Oxfordshire.They too had got here just after the gull had flown off.

For the next half an hour we scanned the hundreds of gulls paddling below us but saw nothing to get excited about. All were Black headed Gulls of various ages with a good number of juveniles amongst them. A Common Sandpiper bobbed and jinked along the shore below and a Little Egret stood on the mud, head sunk into its shoulders. I knew how it felt.

It's wearisome constantly scanning highly active, swimming and flying gulls but there is no alternative. You can never  relax as the Franklin's could slip in un-noticed at any time with so many gulls coming and going from the feeding throng.

Scan, scan and scan again but still without the desired result.

The weather up to now had been warm and sunny, warm enough to discard  jumpers and jackets but large dark grey clouds were looming and soon would be over us. The sun duly disappeared and the first spot of rain fell, heralding a prolonged shower.We sought shelter under some elder bushes and waited for it to pass.Twenty minutes saw the rain begin to lessen but it was still overcast with little sign of the sun returning.

Bored and frustrated with doing nothing I went back to the wall while.the others remained under the bushes, opting to shelter until the last of the rain departed.

I re-commenced scanning the feeding gulls below me. Methodically starting with the gulls to my right, but had hardly started when I saw-.

The Franklin's Gull!

A jolt of adrenalin and excitement pulsed through me.There is no better feeling for a birder believe me. 

It was swimming amongst the Black headed Gulls, picking food from the water's surface.There was no mistaking it, the dark grey upperparts were what first caught my eye, so obvious especially as it was amongst the much paler grey backs of the Black headed Gulls.Its head still retained a black hood although mottled white between eye and bill, chin and throat, looking a bit like a dog's muzzle that becomes grizzled in old age.A black bill and white eye crescents added to the identification as if that were needed 

I shouted to the others

It's here! I've got it! The Franklin's!

A concerted rush to my side ensued and I gave directions as best I could which was not easy with so many gulls and so few landmarks. Eventually three wooden posts and an unlikely Moorhen came to the rescue as pointers to its position on the water and everyone managed to get on it 

It then flew towards us, settling on one of the posts, close and almost bang in front of where we stood. 

It remained here for a minute or two before being chivvied off its post by a juvenile Black headed Gull and then flew around before settling further out at the back of the feeding gulls.

No matter. Everyone had seen it and really well when it was on the post.Mark had another lifer and I my fourth Franklin's Gull in Britain.

It swam around feeding for the next fifteen minutes but at quite a distance and  despite our hopes it would come closer eventually rose from the water and flew upriver and disappeared from sight.

We learned later it had joined a flock of loafing gulls on some rocks a few hundred metres upriver but you could not get to see it due to a large concrete wall between the Thames Path and the river obscuring any chance of watching it.

I waited until almost 7pm at the outfall but it never returned.

We went home the long way round via the Dartford Tunnel and got home at 10pm.