The first day of the month was cold and dry with a light wind blowing through, and the river level was high with a big spate running.
On the second day we had the return of our first Redshank back to our area of the estuary, and our first whooper swans and snipe were soon to follow.
A lot of these birds are much later than usual but other areas are also reporting much later arrivals this winter! The weather has been varied to say the least with overnight snow on the 5th, and on the 8th the whole area was hit with storms that were to create havoc all over the country. Bridges were closed to all traffic, ferries were cancelled, airports were closed and thousands of homes were without electricity for days. Big trees that were blown down created a lot of problems for road and rail commuters.
There was some clearing up to do around the place when the weather settled back down again, with some smaller trees blocking the pathways and a lot of driftwood back round some of the boats again.
Mid month and we welcomed the SSPCA back to the estuary with some more mute swans that had been nursed back to good health at their Middlebank rescue centre. These birds were released back into the wild and were soon mixing with the other swans in the area.
The rest of the month was very mild for the time of year with some wet and windy days, but we did manage to get on with a few of the jobs that were on our “to do” list. The old net green on Incherrit was cut back short and cleared before the rotovator went over some sections of it.
The next step will be to seed it with a wild flower mix in the springtime and hopefully this should help enhance the biodiversity of the area. One other job that we finally got round to was putting a new clutch in our old Ford tractor, but with the right help and a bit of time the job was done and it was all put back together again.
As the year drew to a close the river was still in spate but beginning to settle back a bit, and on New Year’s Eve the mercury was up at an unseasonably warm 11°C – a welcome change from last years big freeze.
Happy New Year
Dago
