Gulls at Clay Lake, Keady, Co. Armagh.
Figure 1: Scoping Gulls on a bitterly cold evening in late January. Caspian Gull On Tuesday the 19 th of January after a boring day at work I decided to stop off at Clay Lake, on the Monaghan Road, near Keady in south Armagh on the way home. I first found out about this lake from my father who noticed several hundred gulls on the lake one evening last winter, however my check the next day was fruitless. I did not realise it was an evening roost. The weather was horrendous and when I arrived there was at least 700 Herring Gulls on the lake. With the torrential rain and only twenty minutes of useable light I only managed to pick out two juvenile / 2cy Iceland and Glaucous Gulls, but I was very impressed with the location. A check the following day and the tallies increased to three Iceland Gulls. I was happy to see there was an obvious turnover of Gulls. There were quite a few brutes of ‘argentatus’ Herring Gulls to keep me occupied too. I tried to get closer to the Gulls by driving to ...