by Stuart Brabbs | Jul 12, 2011 | General
After a fair bit of negotiation with Glasgow Prestwick Airport, ART finally gained access to spray the few giant hogweed plants that had developed within the perimiter fence. The Ladykirk Burn and the Sandyford Burn meet on the east side of the airfield before being...
by Stuart Brabbs | Jul 7, 2011 | General
I had a quick visit back to Girvan today to meet the contractors. Rising river levels had put a stop to any work today but provided ideal conditions for fish to run. Quite a few salmon and sea trout were seen using the new fish pass, including small sea trout under...
by Stuart Brabbs | Jul 6, 2011 | General
Amazingly the Girvan catchment missed the rain today and the river remained low. Work on the upper fish pass has been progressing well, the side baulks are complete and water is flowing down the pass. The crest level to the left of the fish pass needs to be brought up...
by Stuart Brabbs | Jul 5, 2011 | General
Work is now well underway on the project to improve fish passage at the two weirs upstream of Girvan, known locally as the Girvan Dykes. The weirs have long been known as an obstacle to migrating salmonids and are mentioned in “The Salmon Rivers and Loch of...
by Stuart Brabbs | Jun 27, 2011 | General
I have compiled the 2010 timed electrofishing survey results from the Ayr, Doon, Girvan and Stinchar. The report can be found in the downloads section here. This type of electrofishing survey is targetted at salmon fry and all sites are selected on the basis of...
by Stuart Brabbs | Jun 27, 2011 | Invasives
A large stand of Giant Hogweed exists in a small patch of woodland opposite Dobbies Garden Centre at Ayr. Despite being some distance from the river we didn’t feel that we could allow this to develop further untreated as it is spreading from here in all...
by Stuart Brabbs | Jun 24, 2011 | General
I had a call the other day from an angler who had just caught a fresh run salmon from the Ayr which he described as being covered in about 60 lice. A lice burden of that level is unusual so I nipped up to see the fish which had by that time been gutted. I managed to...
by Stuart Brabbs | Jun 20, 2011 | Invasives
Driving through Minishant last week out of the corner of my eye I thought I spotted some Giant hogweed growing at the base of a hedge. Sure enough after a quck u-turn I was able to confirm that is was the dreaded weed. This was in an area well away from any known...