Tay Estuary Diary December 2016

The weather and river conditions were to continue into December as they had ended in November; with a cool dry spell and the river staying at near summer level.

There were a couple of days of hard frost but the cold snap did not last long. There has been a variety of work undertaken this month, with a lot of tidying up and finishing off jobs around the fishery, new accommodation and down at the activity centre. The place is taking shape now and looking good.

There was also work done to level out some of our many pathways; with old railway ballast being recycled and put to good use. The old digger and dumper were busy on this job.

As we come up to the holiday period, some of the boats were all pulled up to the high water mark to protect them from the worst of any spate and bad weather. Some cobbles were also taken by river down to Newburgh.

Where they were taken out of the water for the winter; these cobbles were put inside the big shed at the boatyard where they can get time to dry out before being given a fresh coat of paint for the coming year.

There has not been a lot of movement with the birds on the estuary this last month; Teal numbers are up a bit, there are plenty fieldfare and Redwing about, but Redshank numbers remain poor and it was not until the 17th that we finally saw some greenfinch about the place again.

There was more activity round the feed stations as the weather closed in, and the swans were quicker to come to the grain. There is still not much sign of any Whoopers this winter but we did have green darvex ring SAI return to us on the 14th.

It has been a quieter river of late but there was still the odd coaster plying its trade up to Perth Harbour with a cargo.

By mid-month the weather started to deteriorate, getting windier and wetter as it progressed. It was not long before there was a good spate coming down the system again, and the river was running about six feet above summer level as the year drew to a close on a wet and windy night.

Happy New Year

Dago

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