It was a cold, dry, calm start to the first day of the New-year, but January proved to be a month of stormy weather with some very heavy rain at times. We did have some colourful sunrises on some of the colder dry mornings which were good on the eye.
There was a lot of extra water coming down the system all month, with it peaking at just short of thirteen feet above summer level on the gauge at our Cargill rod beat. There was a lot more work for the chainsaws again this month with the storms bringing down more trees and branches around the place, some of those which were blocking our roads and pathways got priority when the clearing up began.
There was more damage and flooding on the 4th, with another tidal surge on top of a 4.7 meter tide causing big problems. Further down the estuary on the south side there was about 60 meters of flood bank washed out by this surge causing serious flooding to the farmland behind it.
For all the extra water coming down the river it did not stop any of the coasters from plying their trade up to Perth Harbour, the Fri Star being the first boat in this year with a cargo of soya.
There was a good start to the rod fishing season on the river Tay this year, with some good spring fish being caught on the opening day. As the extra water in the system flushes more Kelts down river from their spawning grounds down into the estuary, we are once again seeing an influx of seals into the area to make the most of this opportunity to feast on an easy catch of tired spent fish.
There has not been much movement of birds along the estuary this month; we are seeing a few more swans coming into feed at the grain and there has been the odd Yellow Hammer putting in an appearance at the feed station up in the wood but overall it has been pretty quiet.
We did have the SSPCA back down to the estuary again on the 21st, they brought another 4 swans with them from their rescue centre which were safely released back into the wild and were soon mixing happily with the other swans in the area.
For all the bad weather we have had it was good to see the snowdrops beginning to push through and add a welcome splash of colour about the place.
It was a wet very wet end to the month with the river running high and big tides coming on again flooding in places looks imminent!
