Gulls at Milton Landfill
In the early 1990s, Henry would cycle to the Cambridgeshire College of Agriculture and Horticulture in Milton just outside Cambridge to visit his respirometer, which was situated in the College at the time. (The respirometer was a piece of equipment that he had developed with his colleague Philip Maynard. It was used for measuring oxygen uptake by microorganisms growing on substrates in soil samples.) On cycling to the College he had noticed the large number of birds over the nearby Milton landfill site, and decided to make a “reconnaissance” to investigate further (he loved making reconnaissances).
According to an Environment Agency document, the Milton landfill site opened in about 1980, accepting both hazardous and non-hazardous waste, although tipping of hazardous waste ended in 2003. The area of the landfill that Henry observed, in the corner made by the Ely Road (A10) and the A45 (now the A14) has since been “restored” (filled in) and indeed planning permission for the site to be used as landfill expires in 2026.
Below is Henry’s account of his reconnaissance.
Yesterday I made a reconnaissance, which I have intended to do for some time, of the approaches to the Milton rubbish disposal site and of the birds that frequent it. I have often seen large numbers of gulls over to my left when cycling to the College at Milton but have never stopped to look further. So yesterday I parked my cycle on the edge of the roundabout which takes the Ely Road over the A45, walked a short distance down the verge of the slipway on to the A45, and looked through the chain link fence with my binoculars.
Rubbish was being tipped on to the edge of a fairly level part of the site and incorporated into the soil and previous rubbish with two dissimilar yellow monsters moving alternately forward and backward, All around the moving monsters were masses of gulls, so many that one would think the whole ground was covered with them. As the machines moved, one would think the gulls in front would be fushed, but those in immediate danger flew up just in front and got clear, others immediately settling in just behind. On a bank nearby sat a large number of gulls, like an audience, all facing the direction of the feeding gulls – had they already breakfasted? And on top of the chain link fence sat row upon row of starlings and some crows, but not one gull – probably their feet are too big to perch there. Overall the gulls outnumbered the other birds decisively: there must have been several thousand. I then circumnavigated the site, first across an area of grass and hawthorn trees almost like a piece of common land, and then along wheatfields. When I got back to the start, after perhaps half an hour, there was not one gull to be seen on the ground. A few in the air – perhaps a hundred – but where had the rest gone? Most of the other birds had disappeared too. One monster was still as active as before – had breakfast time ended?
I am not normally a bird watcher but am most intrigued and impressed by the gulls of the Milton refuse disposal centre. Before departing I watched the citizens of Cambridge enjoying their Saturday mornings bringing things in their motor cars for the skips resident on the site. Armchairs, Christmas trees, large bits of wood – all kinds of stuff, which in due course was taken out onto the site where the birds had breakfasted and levelled into the ground. I then went on to the College of Ag. and Hort. to see how the respirometer had been behaving over Christmas and found it had behaved perfectly!
Henry, letter to Andrea, January 1991
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