The cold snap continued into the 2nd week of December with daytime temperatures struggling to get up above freezing, and we had a light covering of snow that was to last for a couple of days.
With hard frost taking a grip higher up in the catchment area the river soon dropped right back to summer level. On the 3rd we were invited along to a seminar at the Horsecross where the council were exploring opportunities for promoting Perth`s new “City Status”. A presentation of the “Inner Tay Master plan 2012 – 2022” was part of our display, which can be downloaded from the Tay Salmon website.
The colder weather seemed to spur on a bit more movement of birds along the estuary. The Goldeneye started to return in good numbers with sightings of eighty plus being reported up at the mouth of the harbour. On the 10th we had a rare sighting of a flock of thirty plus Waxwings that were moving along the hedgerows but sadly these striking birds did not hang around for long.
With more of the inland ponds and lochs icing over, the free moving tidal water of the river drew more Mute Swans in about. The head count rose to forty plus and it was good to see a couple of new green darvix ringed birds in amongst some of the “regulars”!
When the weather did improve slightly we had Scottish Woodlands in about to do some tree cutting for us, it was a job for the boys with the climbing ropes – who used their skills to remove some dangerous trees next to the railway line. It was interesting to watch them bring down the tree safely limb by limb.
Another job that was done this month was the replacement of the Shell navigational pole on the south side of the river where their pipe line crosses over. With the older model of light becoming obsolete it was time to replace it with a greener solar panel powered one that would also be easier to maintain.
On one of the drier days we had Nick and Niall (SSE renewables) came down for a visit to the estuary, they enjoyed a trip out in the boat as they were looking to explore some of the re-usable energy options within the Tay estuary.
Into the last third of the month and we got a very wet spell of weather causing localised flooding and putting almost thirteen feet of extra water on the gauge up at our Cargill rod beat. This was to drop back a bit but the year ended with cold wet weather and a bit of spate coming down the system.
Happy New Year