This month started just like may did last year, with a glorious spell of hot weather lasting well into the second week.
A mother swan and her 6 cygnets made for a nice picture up at the harbour in Perth, and we were starting to see a lot of mallard ducklings about the rivers edge as the month progressed, a lot of which were falling victim to predation in their first few days.
Part of our cutting programme got started this month, and with invasive species of Japanese Knotweed and Hogweed starting to appear in areas along the estuary, strimming got underway, tackling areas on the foreshore at Newburgh and on both banks further up-river. The tractor and topper were also used to give some of the pathways their first cut.
At the top end of the estuary work is well on towards completion of a wildlife /nature pond. Retaining banks have been seeded and some planting out has been done. It is early days yet but already there has been good variety of birds using this area, and along with new insect life appearing along the edges, it should only get better as it all greens up.
We are starting to see a few orchids appearing on the old net greens along the estuary.
These are just some of a variety wild flowers that are benefiting from our cutting programme, and the ragged robin is coming through strong in some areas aswell.
The swallows are sitting tight on their nests just now, and it was good to see that the house-martins have taken advantage of an eroded bit of river bank, turning it into a good nest sight. The month ended with the river almost back to summer level, and a good spell of weather to go with it.
Dago
