The month started with a glorious spell of weather, the mercury was up into the high seventies and there was not a cloud in the sky for days.
This hot spell turned some of the smaller ponds and scrapes into a hive of activity with masses of fly life everywhere, it was good to see a lot of different coloured damson flies darting around the fringes in some areas.
We have been lucky enough to watch a young otter at close quarters while it has been feeding at regular intervals near one of the bothies, while a little bit more unusual was witnessing a rabbit coming down to the river, going in for a swim and then coming back out of the water again!.
Out on the main river this month we have seen swans with five cygnets, and the resident swans at Friarton Ponds had 3 cygnets.
The good spell of weather enabled us to get on with some of our outside jobs which included giving one of the rowing cobbles its annual tar and paint.
Grass cutting and strimming back invasive species took up their usual quota of time and again, this month.
Work on the renovation of the old bothy has taken up a lot of our time but things are progressing and getting nearer to completion.
As part of the Biodiversity programme of events this month, we were invited up to an open day, just outside Brechin, by Scotia Seeds. This proved to be an enjoyable and very interesting day and hopefully some of the information that we picked up can be of good use to us back down on the river banks.
Back on the river it was Newburgh boat race time again this month and the good weather ensured a healthy crowd turning out to watch the heats.
The winners this year were Alan Brown and Fraser Hart. The river had dropped right back to summer level as the dry spell continued.
