We had a dry and mild start to the month but that did not last for long as the wind and rain soon returned.
The feeding station up in the wood has been busy at times with the smaller birds, but we are still not seeing much movement out on the estuary from the migratory birds.
Teal numbers are quite good so far and the Golden eye were starting to appear in the last week of the month but we are still looking out for our first Whooper swans, Snipe and Redshank (they are all much later returning to our area this year).
After all the snow and ice of last winter it has been good to see the Kingfisher back about the place again.
Some of the wet days were spent on inside jobs, with the bothy getting a lick of paint to freshen it up.
On some of the dry days the chainsaw and log splitter have been kept busy, getting the logs cut up and split, ready to keep the wood stove going through the winter nights.
It has been very mild at times for the time of year and the temperature was up at 15.5°C mid-month, we were still seeing butterflies out and about with a Red Admiral sighting on the 18th.
There were more coasters up at Perth Harbour this month with a lot of timber being moved on the bigger tides.
A couple of our cobbles are coming out of the river and going inside for the winter, where they will dry out and get a coat of paint ready for the spring time.
We had gales and much colder weather towards the end of the month, and a lot of rain that brought more spate out on the river. On the last day there was almost twelve feet of extra water recorded in areas above Perth.
