You could hear them before you could see them.
It was just after the last race had run and the punters had left the lawn along the track to reveal what lay beneath: rubbish. And lots of it.
More News Videos
Litter and laughter as Melbourne Cup closes
As thousands flock to the trains, seagulls flock to the scraps as Melbourne Cup draws to a close.
And they were coming for it.
Their cries were heard over the drunken whoops and then, you could hear their beating wings. Seagulls! Hundreds of them, descended from the sky like a Hitchcock horror film, swooping on the leftovers, causing remaining revellers to squeal and duck for cover.
![The seagulls descend.](/web/20161103052821im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/f/r/g/r/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gsfqox.png/1478026837551.jpg)
The Melbourne Cup clean-up had begun.
It's almost poetic #MelbourneCup @theage pic.twitter.com/de1E15PHbp
— Tammy Mills (@TammyMills1) November 1, 2016
Standing among the birds of prey was a man, unflinching. Eric Bashtannyk is a Cup clean-up expert. He's been doing it for 30 years and the gulls are the least of his worries.
"If you go into the toilets you find all sorts of things," he said.
![Racegoers leave Flemington.](/web/20161103052821im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/f/q/p/r/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gsfqox.png/1478026837551.jpg)
"You find drugs, you find ladies underwear everywhere.
"Some days you think it's going to be easy, but it turns into a nightmare." Tuesday was one of those days.
![Cup day clean-up king Eric Bashtannyk.](/web/20161103052821im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/f/q/y/n/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gsfqox.png/1478026837551.jpg)
Mr Bashtannyk couldn't put his finger on it, people were just in party mode and the rubbish they left behind completely out-dumped Derby Day.
"We try to stay on top of it, for 90 per cent of the day we do, but if it's in full bloom you tend to lose it," he said.
![Punters left piles of rubbish behind after celebrating Melbourne Cup day at Flemington.](/web/20161103052821im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/f/q/p/o/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gsfqox.png/1478026837551.jpg)
And, once the gulls are gone, the "emus" strike, he said.
Every year, there's a group of men who will pick through the tickets left behind by drunken punters.
One time, Mr Bashtannyk said, a couple of men from one of the old school emu crews who come every year found a ticket that won them $22,000.
As beer cans crunch underfoot, Mr Bashtannyk said it was always a proud moment walking on the lawn at first light on Wednesday.
"It'll be completely spotless," he said.