Tay Estuary Diary February 2014

It was a bad start to the month as the adverse weather continued; day one saw gales, heavy rain and a low pressure. All of this combined with a river in spate saw what should have been a 4.7meter afternoon tide peaking at over 5.2meters, with the ground at saturation point there was more localized flooding again. The river has been running high for a few weeks now but this has not stop some coasters from making their way up to Perth Harbour to ply their trade, the Leiria being one of these – who picked up a cargo of logs to take onwards to Genk.

 

As the month moved on the weather dried up a bit and it got frosty for a day or two, but this was not enough to deter the hardy Scone scouts from doing another overnight stay in one of our older bothies that has no power or running water. A good time was had by one and all, and the open fire was kept well stoked up for a heat and cooking on. The bacon butties went down a treat!

 

On the 10th we had around 70 swans come in about for a couple of days; one of these had a white darvex ring numbered 690, our first white ring for a few years now. The feedback on this particular swan was quite interesting; it turned out that it was ringed on 28.08.2005 at Harehope Farm lower pond, about four miles northwest of Peebles in the borders. An older bird that has travelled a bit!

 

As the bad weather was never far away it was good to have a bit of inside work to do that was undercover away from the elements, this included some of the Cargill rod beat cobbles getting their annual tar and paint in the old boat shed down at Newburgh. One of the older cobbles received a bit more attention this year, with a bit of plank work and patching getting done to it. Local retired boat builder Jim Davidson was at hand to help out and get it back ready for using again.

 

Other jobs this month included fencing of an area that runs parallel with the railway track for planting, chicken wire has been used to help keep the rabbits at bay and a layer of mulch has been put down.

 

We had a trip up to Woodbury Estates in Glenisla to pick up a variety of trees and shrubs; these will be used in this area and a few other places about the river side.

 

The chainsaw was busy again this month with more work along the back brae in Newburgh where there were more trees down in the storms that needed cutting up and clearing to open up the pathway again for the walkers to use.

 

There was also a bit of work done cutting back the sides of some of the pathways, to keep them opened up for better access when using them.

 

Late on in the month a mild spell of wet windy weather saw a quick snow melt causing a rapid rise in the river level and more localized flooding.

 

With big tides due as the month ended it was good to see the water level dropping back a bit.

 

Dago

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