A few weeks ago, the possibility of Spring loomed large. The hazel catkins were opening out into classic 'lamb's tails', pussy willow buds were peeping, and blackbirds sang lustily. Then came the 'beast from the east', next was Storm Emma, closely pursued by the (not so!) mini beast. Dartmoor lay white under snow, thawing very slowly, the Tamar peaked at 8, and then 10 feet. Rain fell relentlessly, the water table rose ever higher, and rivers stayed somewhere between too high to fish, and a yellow flood warning.
The equinox is well past, the clocks have gone forward, but hopes of spring have receded daily. So far it has not been feasible to fish for the brownies, despite their season being open. The water is still very cold and fly hatches have yet to start in earnest. Some time soon, the Grannom will swarm, the Large Dark Olives will sail majestically down the stream, and all will be well in Devon once more.
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| Elmer Fudd lives! |
A very high and brown river Lyd. No sign of cormorants here today, but we are ever prepared for them. Sea trout smolts are already heading to the sea, and their salmon cousins will soon follow. These little priceless mini-bars of silver need all the help they can get on their perilous journey, the Benelli M2 is choked to go.
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| Dog's Mercury in flower - yes, the almost invisible yellow heads are as close to a flower as this plant ever gets. Wood Anemones are in bloom just behind the Dog's Mercury. Harry spaniel, constant companion with rod and gun, used to browse this plant like a hungry bullock, but we have recently discovered that it is toxic to humans. |
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| Daffodils bloom beside the swollen waters of the Lyd. |
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| Despite today being the last day of March, the blackthorn is stubbornly refusing to flower. Tiny tight buds will soon be a sea of delicate white, like snow along the hedges. A little warmth and sunshine would be most welcome. |
Cracking footage of a bitch otter fishing - who said they were nocturnal? Keep your eyes on the slack water beyond the main flow at first. Note how sometimes she surfaces very rapidly like a porpoise, this is for breathing. On the occasions when she holds her head above water for a few seconds, often drifting down with the flow, notice that her jaws are working and she is in fact munching a small fish. We are very proud of our resident population of otters on our rivers, they have now fully recovered from the ravages of persistent pesticides which decimated them back in the 1960's. Their steady recovery has pushed out the invasive non-native mink, which were such a problem not so many years ago.
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