We had mixed weather early on in the month with some wet and windy days and some dry, duller milder days.
The river level has dropped back steadily over the month apart from one little spike in levels around the 6th. There was plenty of work to get on with this month before a lot of our routine cutting starts taking up more of our time. Down at the boatyard in Newburgh another two of our Cargill rod beat cobbles have had a fresh coat of paint, and are getting the finishing touches ready to go back up onto the river for another busy season.
While down at Newburgh we also spent a bit of time litter picking the river bank from the county burn down to the boatyard, a lot of rubbish was removed and the place looks a lot tidier for it.
The weather took a change for the better and we were basking in glorious sunshine over the Easter weekend, it was much more like summertime as we were down to working in the shirt sleeves. Around this time we started to see a lot more movement of birds along the estuary with hundreds of geese flying overhead, heading back north and there were some more new arrivals coming back. On the 9th we had the Osprey back fishing up at the Willowgate fishery, and the Shellduck were moving further up river again returning to some of their old nesting sights.
On the 15th we saw our first Swallows and Sand martins; and then on the 16th we saw our first Common Sandpipers, these were followed on the 25th by the return of the House martins. During this spell we were seeing more butterflies and bees out and about; there were caterpillars hatching out in some areas, and we saw our first Orange Tips of the year on the 29th.
We saw our first ducklings on the 23rd and there were even a few Newts to be seen at some locations.
Up at the willowgate fishery regulars and new customers have been enjoying the fishing with some good catches being recorded, and the café has been busy with a steady increase in trade as their tray bakes, cakes and scones continue to be enjoyed by customers old and new.
There were a few more coasters made their way up to Perth Harbour again this month, one of these was the “LOMUR” which brought up a cargo of fishmeal before returning empty to Rotterdam.
There was one last burst of very good weather before a wet and dull final day brought the month to a close, but this did not affect the dropping river level.