The THAYERS GULL in County Galway

Latitude 53.569676 (north), Longitude -10.028372 (west)Irish Grid Reference L 656 596

Directions from Clifden town. Take the N59 north to towards Westport. After 8km take a left (ignoring a previous left-hand turn for Cleggan). Follow this small road for 2km and take the second right (small sign for Judo Club). Follow this road for another 2km passing a bay on your right. End the end of this road you should see a group of rocky islands on the left and a group of six fish cage offshore. The bird feeds mainly on these cages (500m out). He usually sits on the bottom floats of the cages at the back and can be obscured by the netting at times. Also been seen even more distantly on a Mussel farm from here on the other side of bay. At low tide he has been seen drinking and washing on the small cobble/sand beach to your left where a small stream enters the bay. I found there was alot of disturbance at the weekend from walkers, more so on Saturday. Low tide between 11 and 12 next weekend (Dermot Breen).