The new year was to see the big freeze continue, with the mercury staying below freezing for days on end. It turned out to be the worst spell of weather on record for thirty years.
We had minus 15ºC during the day when it was at its worst, and with a deep covering of snow, times were very difficult for all the wildlife. There were bans on wildfowl shooting and bird ringing brought into place at this time.
The river up in Perth was frozen over in places and there were large ice flows down in the estuary. At this time it was estimated that over 2000 golden-eye were up at the mouth of the harbour feeding for a few days. Newburgh Piers had their share of ice and a lot of the local boats were out of action for a while.
We had record numbers of swans on the river during this period as all inland waters round about became iced up. The 200 + swans, and over 100 mallard were making light work of the five bags of grain being put out for feeding every day. We were also running out a sack of chaff every day up in the woods to help the smaller birds through the worst of it.
The conditions dictated what work could be done at this time, so there was a spell of inside jobs which included some maintenance work to cutting equipment and a lot of painting. By mid-month the thaw finally came and the river level was on the rise again. Life got a little bit easier for all the birds that made it through the cold snap. Down at Newburgh, work got underway on the slipway and the pier at the front of the old boat-yard. These have been in poor condition for some time now and will benefit from the improvements being carried out on them.
As conditions improved, some of our swans moved on but redshank numbers picked up again on the estuary.
Seal numbers have picked up again on the river, they are making the most of an easy food supply, as more kelts started to drop back down the system. The otters were also enjoying good catches, sometimes taking fish as big as themselves.
We would like to say thanks to Jenny Ross, for the use of the last three photos, which were taken by her while down on the river at our location recently. With more frost again as the month ended, it was a more gradual thaw that saw the river running a couple of feet above summer level.
With the sales of the “Tay Salmon Memories booklet” going well it will soon be time to get more printed. Anyone with Tay Salmon connections and a story to tell who would like to be part of the next booklet should get in touch with us through the Tay Salmon web site at taysalmon.co.uk. We would also be interested in any old photos of the salmon netting that was once a big part of river life.
Dago
