May started with some glorious weather, and a settled river level.
The birds are all busy feeding young or sitting on eggs, we have a wagtail nesting on top of a boat engine.
Our resident swan is sitting on a clutch of six eggs.
The osprey is a regular fisher on the river just now and the fox is feeding well on duck eggs from nests around the riverside.
The bees are very busy and supers have been added to all the hives.
All the frogspawn has hatched out and the tadpoles are coming on.
By mid-month the weather got cooler, windy at times and the odd shower.We have a few on-going jobs with repair work to our flood-banks continuing.
Another job underway is the annual tarring and painting of our rowing cobbles,
which also includes replacing any wooden runners if required.
Grass cutting is underway, and a new tractor/topper is making light work of the net-greens and pathways.
The start of a regular strimming programme saw patches of hogweed and Japanese knotweed getting their first of several cuts to weaken and hopefully eradicate them.
We have also had the digger in at low tide clearing access into Elcho pier.
The harbour staff were giving their new tug boat a try out on the river.
It was a cooler and very wet end to the month, which saw a good showing of Ragged Robin and our first marsh orchids this year.
Dago.
