It was all change on the estuary again with the weather this month. After having a very dry September and a low river level it was back to a lot more rain, gales and a river in spate for a lot of the time. We were soon into that old routine of bailing out boats and clearing drift from the mooring lines.
At the end of a stormy first week we had the SSPCA back on the river again, bringing with them some more cygnets (13) and Mallard ducks(8) from their rescue centre which were safely released back into the wild.
We have seen a bit more activity along the estuary this month as more birds are beginning to move about. Teal numbers have been very good so far, and some days we were seeing hundreds of Fieldfare passing through. There have been a few Dabchicks about and the odd Goldeneye but we are still waiting for our first Redshank to return.
The Woodpecker has been busy on the feeders and the Dipper and Kingfisher have been a bit more regular along the burn at the back of the bothy.
On some of the better days when it was dry we spent a bit of time up at the fishery catching up on some of our jobs.
A lot of the banking’s have had their final strim and the log splitter was back up and running again as we started to get our store of logs built up for keeping the café wood burning stove going over the winter months.
The tractor has been getting round more of the paths and wood giving it all a final cut for the year, we have been leaving it cut short in some areas to give the bulbs a head start when they start to come through in the new year.
We have taken delivery of more daffodil bulbs, so the spades will be out soon for our next phase of planting about the estuary.
There was more spate on the system as the month came to an end, but it was mild for the time of year and with the sun lower in the sky now we were starting to get some nice sunrises.
