We had a calm dry start to this month with some cooler days early on. There is certainly an autumnal feel about it now what with the geese arriving back in numbers, some misty mornings and the farmers having most of their harvest in summer feels like a distant memory.
During this spell of weather a lot of the pathways and old net greens got what will hopefully be their last cut. It was time now to get organised for our next phase of work for over the autumn period, and that included getting a delivery of five tonnes of daffodil bulbs which will planted out at various locations about the riverside.
As there was a change in the weather we started to see some movement of birds along the estuary; on the 7th we sighted our first Fieldfares, and on the 25th we had our first Redshank back with us on our bit of the river. Once again our thanks go out to Ted down at Tayside grain for sorting us out with some more grain and chaff for feeding the birds over the winter months.
We have started to get a few more swans coming back on to the Estuary and beginning to group up again.
By mid-month the swallows were all but gone, although the House Martins were still feeding a late brood at one of the bothies it also looks like the Goldfinches have had a good year if the size of the charms we are seeing is anything to go by! There were a few wet days here and there but overall it was a dry month, and the fruit trees down at the new orchard have all done well.
It has certainly been a very good year for the Sloes, with bumper crops in some areas. This made it a bit quicker and easier getting a few pounds of them picked for this year’s batch of Sloe gin. It is that time of year again when we get a lot of fungi appearing about the place, this year we have seen some good specimens and in good numbers too.
There was the odd coaster back up the river again this month, taking advantage of some of the bigger tides that we had in the last week.
It proved to be a bit of an Indian summer as the month drew to a close and we certainly had some glorious weather for the time of year which kept our bees busy around the hives as they took advantage of everything round about.
It was also good for us as we managed to get a late spin of honey from them before things slow up again in the colder weather.
The month ended with a very low river as the catchment area began to dry up a bit.
Dago