Tay Estuary Diary July 2016

The month started off with a dry dull day, but over the course we had our fair share of rain that had the river level fluctuating a bit at times!

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There were good spells of weather too that let us get on with all our routine jobs for this time off the year; grass cutting taking up a fair bit of our time as we got round all the different pathways

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and the old net green got cut back once all the orchids had past.

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Another job was keeping the Japanese Knotweed and Giant Hogweed in check around the foreshore while we were out on our travels.

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Every other day we seemed to be back bailing out the cobbles and draining the old barge after another heavy shower, so much for British summer time!

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It has been a quiet time on the river of late, apart from the odd coaster the only other boat out and about was from the harbour (the fair maid) doing its routine check round the navigational poles.

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We have seen seals, otters and the beaver on the river this month, along with the kingfisher and the common sand pipers that have a few young about the place. The house martins are doing well; a lot of them are feeding a second brood just now.

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There is a lot of colour in places along the river banks just now with more wild flowers coming through with the rebeccia  doing very well along the tide line.

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There are some good areas where our wild flower seed mixes have got a bit of a foothold now, so hopefully they will get stronger over the next few seasons.

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It was a dull windy day as July came to an end; and the river level was dropping back towards summer level again, hopefully the weather will be a bit kinder to us next month!

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Dago