This month started as the last one ended, with days of heavy rain. It was a week before we settled into a good dry spell of weather, but the river was to stay above summer level all month.
The 1st was the start of the duck shooting season, but it was very quiet on the estuary with hardly a gun to be heard. We have seen a lot of movement along the estuary again this month as the migratory birds have been coming and going.
Our last sighting of the osprey was on the 19th, and on the 24th there were still a few swallows around. The common snipe numbers are picking up now with a count of 13 on the 22nd, there are more teal and lapwing grouping up, and we had 84 mute swans on the 21st. We had our first great crested grebe back on the 18th and our first redshank on the 29th. With the kingfisher and otter also putting in regular appearances there is plenty to see on the river just now.
The good spell of weather let us get going again on our cutting programme, with more pathways, invasive species and areas where the wildflowers have seeded all being cut back. Another job done in the good weather was the repair of one of our old diesel boats “the osprey “ which needed some planks and patching up, this was done by retired boat builder Jim Davidson who used to work for the Company.
The opening of the trout fishery has been put back until the 18th October, we are not far away now and everything is just about ready, with just a few odd jobs and a bit of tidying up left to do.
On the 17th of this month the SSPCA were back on the estuary using our location as a release sight again.
On this trip they brought along 5 mute swans (cygnets), 5 hedgehogs and 2 tawny owls, these were from the Middle-Bank rescue centre and were successfully released.
The cygnets have since joined up with a large group of mute swans in the area.
There was mixed weather and a little bit of extra water coming down the system as the month ended.
