It was a dry warm start to the month of August and the river was slowly dropping back to summer level
but this all changed by the end of the first week when we had heavy rain and the river was soon rising again as more spate came down the system. The next couple of weeks saw a pattern of very heavy rain at times with some very good weather in the mix the gauge up at our rod beat recorded a rise of over 7 feet above summer level at one time, this did recede a bit but the river ran high for most of August. During the good spells of weather, we managed to catch up on some fence painting that was needing done and carried on with our routine grass cutting about the place.
Another job that was caught up on was cutting some of our big hedges around the Fishery
and Activity centre, always glad to see them finished and tidied up again.
The Activity Centre has had a very busy spell this month with various groups all using and enjoying the facilities on offer. Over the 14th and 15th we had a large group of Chinese school children (300+) pay a visit,
where they all enjoyed a mixture of highland games actives and some water-based stuff too.
These activities were enjoyed, with the tug of war being a favourite of the young ones.
As the early morning temperatures began to drop and heavy dew forming on the grass there was an autumnal feeling towards the end of the month. With the swallows gathering up on the wires, the combines busy in the fields and the birds already picking at the rowan berries you can`t help feeling summer is slipping away. On the 28th we witnessed thousands of Sand Martins out over the river dropping back down the estuary, it is not often we see such a concentrated number of birds together but quite amazing to see.
As the month ended the river saw a rise of over 10ft at Cagill which put a stop to fishing for the day.
Dago