The Institute at Newburgh was the venue for a trip down memory lane on the first of the month with a Tay Salmon Fisheries reunion day being held by the Tay Regeneration Project.
There was a good turn out the day with many locals turning up, and a few people who had travelled to the event from further afield.
Along with a selection of old memorabilia on display and a slide show of old photos to look at, there were a lot of interesting things brought along on the day by some of those who had turned up. Of which included more photos, newspaper cuttings, some books and an old bit of 8mm cine-film footage which is now in the process of being transferred over to DVD. The cold snap continued into the early part of the month giving us quite a few frosty mornings and some colourful sunrises.
The wildlife pond at the top end of the estuary is being used by wintering birds and looking good after having a season for the surrounding area to green up.
An outside job that got underway in this dry spell of weather was tidying up one of the old bothies which was in need of some repair, but had also fallen victim to mindless vandalism leaving it an eyesore to passing traffic.
Work is now in progress with the outer walls being clad in wood to help it blend into the surrounding area and become a bit easier on the eye.
As we entered the second half of the month the bigger tides saw the 90 meter coaster Fast Sam arriving in Perth with a record cargo of 2569 tonnes of German wheat.
There has been plenty movement of birds on the estuary with over a hundred and fifty goldeneye using the harbour area of the river, the kingfisher, dipper and dabchicks are about most days and the redshank and teal are in good numbers just now. There are a few otter on the river that can be seen swimming about and hunting most days.
After a few days of gale force weather conditions, the year drew to a close with the cold snap returning and the mercury dropping below zero most nights.
