Tay Estuary Diary August 2015

It was a cooler start to the month of August, with mostly dry weather for the first few days. As it progressed it turned out to be another mixed month with a bit of everything thrown into the mix.

Heavy rain at times saw the river level fluctuating, but we did have some decent spells of warm weather too. On the 3rd of the month we had another visit from the SSPCA; this time they had brought along a dozen Shellduck ducklings with them, these were successfully released back into the wild on the estuary after being brought up to size at their rescue centre. They were up and flying in no time, hopefully they will soon settle in with the other Shellduck in the area.

We were starting to see a bit of movement of birds along the estuary over the last couple of weeks; on the 10th the first of the geese were passing overhead, and on the 17th the Curlews were dropping back in good numbers The swallows and Martins are gathering up in big numbers now and there are a few more Ospreys about fishing their way down the system. We have even been treated to a few close-up sightings of the Peregrine falcon lately which was good to see.

There is a definite autumnal feel about the place now; with colder mornings, the farmers working away at the harvest in their combines and the apples rowan berries out on the trees.

The boats and old barge were out and about again this month on the river, ferrying the tractor and cutter around the river as we got on with what will hopefully be the some of the final cuts of the season.

The pathways were all tackled again,

and more of the old net greens were cut now that the wild flowers on them were past.

For all that there was still a bit of colour along the banks of the river in various places as more of the later wild flowers keep coming.

A lot of the fruit is not far away now for picking, and there are plenty of berries about for the birds. There was an unexpected visitor to the harbour this month when a terrapin was spotted swimming about in the water, it was quickly rescued and passed onto the SSPCA, where it would be looked after and get any help that it needed.

We had a warm end to the month, and there was a little bit of extra water coming down the system.

Dago

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