We had a frosty start to the first few days of December, and as the river’s catchment area slowed up with the cold snap the river level continued to slowly drop away.
As is the case at this time of year some of our time was spent on maintenance of our kit and getting it back up to speed after another busy year. Another ongoing job for us at this time of year is keeping up with our wood cutting, log splitting, and kindling supplies for our wood burning stoves, always a warm job for a cold day.
Out on the river we are seeing a lot more seals about on the estuary just now as they make light work of the Kelts that are dropping back down the system after spawning.
There are good teal numbers out on the river again this year, and up near the Friarton bridge area there has been a small white Egret spotted a few times over the last couple of weeks, it is always good to see something a bit rarer in your own area now and again. The beaver continues to keep itself busy round the pond up at the fishery with more of the established trees taking a hit on a regular basis.
The river level was to fluctuate a bit this month with rain and spate affecting it at times, there was a rise on the 10th when it peaked around the ten-foot mark and after receding back down again there was another rise after storm Gerrit hit on the 29th when it again peaked at around the twelve-foot mark.
There was a trip down to Tayport this month with the outboard engine to get its annual service and a chance to see the river from another perspective.
It has been a quiet river this month for boats but there was one coaster made a trip up to Perth harbour with its cargo and we also saw the big RNLI boat that had been helping on a call out to the river.
There are encouraging signs that winter is moving along as the snowdrops are beginning to push their way up through the cold ground and the shortest day is behind us again.
The year ended on a cold calm dry day and the river level was at nine feet seven inches and dropping.
Happy New Year
Dago