Horrid memories of Common sights.

Trevor Hatton popped by with some old photos he thought I might appreciate. Including one of  me on Horrid Hill some thirty-odd years ago.

Waiting for the boat. Trevor and I were waiting for one of the great characters of the estuary, Chad, to bring his little boat alongside the point for a day on the water. Scrambling out over the rocks to board by an icy plank. Hours freezing on an extremely cold day on the water, so cold that Trevor and I were pushing ice out of the way with a couple of gaffs as we tried to enter Sharps Green Bay.

Trevor had forgotten the Great Skua we'd had right alongside, but remembered the same great highlight as we entered Half Acre at dusk, in a cold mist. Hundreds upon hundreds of Common Gulls roosting on the still water, staring us out, then slowly parting as we chugged our way through. Like a watery version of Hitchcock's 'The Birds'. It was years before I ever saw numbers like that again on the estuary. While in East Sussex I became used to thousands of Common Gulls passing over the cottage heading south for Rye Bay at dusk, but big numbers here only seem to happen occasionally; what conditions cause it, not sure, but always making for a great memory.

All making for a good excuse for us to go revisit Berengrave memories in the next few weeks. Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose.