The good weather carried on into March month and the river level continued to slowly drop back down towards summer level, but by the 10th it was back to wet stormy weather and we had about 10ft of spate coming back down the system again. Everything has started budding up now, the snowdrops are almost past and the native wild primrose is pushing through all over the place.
We have had a fair bit of movement along the estuary the last few weeks with skene’s of geese and a lot of Whoopers all heading north, and most of the Teal have all but gone now. There was a fleeting visit from a hybrid Canada greylag but it didn’t hang about long.
We are seeing a lot more Shell Duck, Oyster Catchers and Curlews about; and the smaller birds are all getting busy round the nest boxes now. We managed to get a few more bird boxes repaired and put back up again this month for the birds to use.
It was good to see the bees out again during the warm spell enjoying the flowers, also seeing a few bumble bees and one butterfly!
It will soon be that time to start cutting the grass again, the old mowers have had a start-up, oil check and blades all sharpened up ready to go.
Up at our Cargill rod beat it was good to see them getting a few lovely spring salmon this month, catches are going well up there just now.
It was also good to see the Willowgate trout fishery back open and few of the regulars back for a cast, it has recently been topped up and stocked up.
Down at the Activity Centre pond levels there have also been all topped up ready to go; and it is great to see people back in again enjoying some of the activities on offer at the centre and out on the river.
The month ended with duller cooler weather; there was a bit more spate and some stormy weather, but that had passed and the river level was around six feet and dropping on the last day.
Dago