Most of the snow has cleared from the higher ground now, but in the early part of the month the temperature struggled to stay much above freezing point and The Willowgate Fishery has stayed frozen over.
There have been a few attempts to break up the ice, but it was still too thick in some areas, much to the disappointment of the many anglers phoning up to book some fishing. As the month moved on so too did a lot of the swans that had wintered with us, but not before the bird ringers got a chance to re-ring some of the mute swans that had lost their darvex rings. These were safely replaced (making them easier to identify), they also managed to ring a whooper cygnet that has been in our area for a while so it will be interesting to see if it returns to us for the next winter.
With the big tides past, and a lot of the growth on the river bank flattened down by all the snow we had last month, it was a good time to get on with one of our annual jobs – litter picking. A few days were spent walking a few miles up and down the tide line lifting bag loads of old cans, bottles, and various other bits of rubbish that had worked their way down the system over the last year.
Due to the winter we have had, the snowdrops are a bit behind schedule this year, but they have finally burst through in their glory and as a back drop on one of the brighter days of the month there was a feeling that spring was just around the corner.
The better weather and the smaller tides also let work progress on the slipway down at Newburgh, and the shuttering and concrete phase of the job is now underway.
Some of the old hailings and beaches were given another going over with the tractor and grubber, helping to free them up from any silt and weed that was left over from last time. It was good to see the Lapwings and Oystercatchers coming back into some of these areas alongside the Redshanks who are often there in good numbers.
The old net green on Incherrit also came in for a bit of work this month, to see if we could help improve the wildflowers that are beginning to struggle a bit in some areas. In some places the grasses have become more dominant and started to choke the flowers out a bit, so we went over the net green with the rotavator and then with a roller. We will see how it does during the year, and maybe do the same in other areas if it shows a marked improvement.
The second half of the month saw the weather change again, with another very cold snap which saw the mercury dropping to minus ten one day. This was followed by more snow and gales. There was major disruption to the Perthshire area at this time with power cuts, and blocked roads and railway lines. This bad spell of weather saw swan numbers pick up again on the estuary as they returned to the tidal range where they have had a steady supply of grain to help them through the winter months.
As our supply of grain/chaff from local Elcho Farm was almost all used up at this time, we have to pass on our thanks to Ted at Tayside Grain who stepped in and helped us out at this time with some more grain to see the birds through this bad spell. As the month drew to a close we had yet more snow, rain and wind and a rising river.
