It was a cooler start to the month with some heavy showers passing over some days, but it did gradually improve.The resident pair of mute swans nesting at the fishery have been successful and hatched out six cygnets this month.
They are doing fine and seem at ease with any attention they get from the walkers and fishers. There is also a pair of mute swans up at Perth Harbour that had eleven cygnets in tow. One of the jobs to be started this month was opening up and re-instating the old pathway that linked up the Willowgate Fishery to the old railway bridge.
Working alongside Perth and Kinross Council, work has commenced which has mainly involved walking the old pathway giving it a light strim to keep the undergrowth in check. It is passable with care just now, but there are still a couple of small areas requiring a bit more attention. The Tay Estuary Forum Group had a field trip for sixteen of its members, who came down to the Willowgate Fishery and river on the 13th.
The group enjoyed a guided tour round the fishery, which was followed by a trip on the river in the boat, then refreshments in the café. One of the highlights for them was witnessing a deer swimming across the river right in front of the café.
A good spell of warm weather saw a lot more activity on all the different wild flowers, from insects, butterflies and the bees from our one remaining hive. Sadly only one hive made it through the winter, reports from round about in the area suggest heavy losses amongst other bee keepers.
There does appear to be better numbers of bumble bees about this year. The ongoing struggle of keeping invasive species (hogweed and knotweed) in check continues along sections of the river bank, as does our usual summer cutting programme on pathways and net greens. As the dry spell continued into the second half of the month the mercury started to rise and hit 27º C on the 22nd. As more colours are appearing along the river banks from all the various wild flowers that are appearing, it is always good to see the marsh orchids back in their usual sights.
The river was finally back down to summer level exposing stones at low water that have not been seen for a long time. There are plenty of smolts dropping back down the system just now, a lot more showing than some previous years.
It turned cooler and wetter at the end of the month but not enough to affect the river level.
