The month was to start the same way as the last one had ended.
With the dry warm weather continuing, September turned out to be one of the driest months on record, with only the odd shower recorded over the period. The river level is as low now as it has been all year.
The bigger tides this month saw a few more coasters plying their trade up to Perth Harbour again.
The 1st saw the start of the duck shooting season on the river, but there were not many wildfowlers to be seen out and about at the top end of the estuary. We have seen a bit more movement of birds along the estuary over the last few weeks; the geese have been passing overhead in large numbers and on the 15th we witnessed hundreds of Swallows and Sand Martins dropping back down the river system.
There were a few Wheatears about on the 15th, and the Tree Creeper and Flycatchers were still feeding young fledglings. On the 24th we had the SSPCA back visiting us on the estuary again; they brought round 19 cygnets with them from their rescue centre.
These swans were released after they had been looked after by the SSPCA until they were ready to return to the wild.
The continued good weather saw a lot of activity at our beehive over the month and we managed to get another late spin of honey again from them, this was done before getting them sorted out for going into the winter months.
A lot of the Rowan berries have been already been stripped off the trees early this year, and we saw our first Fieldfare early on this month. Hopefully this is not a bad omen for this coming winter! We have been out and picked a few crates of apples that we will use for feeding the birds; they will be stored for a bit until they are needed when the colder weather comes.
A lot of our time this month was again spent on cutting and strimming pathways etc. at various locations about the riverside. There was also a bit of chainsaw work tidying up some branches that were brought down on one of the windier days.
This month ended as it had started, with another dry, calm warm day and the river level is as low as it has been all year.
