After the first few days of March the river settled back and was running clear again.
Another batch of nest-boxes have been put up along route of the Newburgh to County Burn footpath, and riverside.
Other jobs achieved this month have included maintenance to the sand-martin banking, a large bund of river silt, shaped for the birds to nest in. This included tidying up the face and adding more holes and pipe to help encourage more nesting pairs in.
Two hundred conifers have been planted at various locations along the riverside.
Most of the fishing “hailings” got another going over with the tractor and grubber to free them up of silt and weeds for the benefit of the wading birds. Large areas of riverside have been covered with an annual litter pick, clearing the reedbeds and foreshore of all types of rubbish before everything starts to grow again.
The first day of the month saw the return of curlews to our bit of the estuary, and the shellduck followed a few days later. The hedgehog has been sighted and there is a lot of frog spawn lying in the pools.
With the big tides this month an active search has been underway with ourselves and SEPA to try and find the spawning area of the Sparling. This has been done towing a small dredge net along the bottom, behind a cobble at various sites, taking samples of gravel and checking for a Sticky jelly like spawn which attaches itself to it.
The month ended with a good spell of dry weather and the river level almost back to normal.
Dago.
