CIRB Invasive Weeds Conference

We are heading to Ireland tomorrow to attend the CIRB conference on Invasive Weeds and their control. Alongside Gillian and myself, will be Gordon and Meryl, our two Invasive Weeds Project Officers and Alba Bonas Piella, our Catalan intern that worked with the Trust...

Doon Egg trial is under way

Weather once again threatened our planned work on the Doon. It was bad enough struggling with high water all summer but on the day we planned to plant the egg boxes in the river, we were subjected to blizzards. No matter what, we were going ahead with this today if we...

Egg Trials

As the River Ayr has been suffering from poor juvenile stocks for the last few years, we have been researching possible causes for this problem for some time. In order to determine what life stages are most affected, we decided to plant egg boxes out at key points...

Landslide at Catrine

During the holidays I received a call informing me of a landslide upstream of Catrine Dam. Over a week since the incident took place and the bank is still moving. I’m not sure who owns the woodland at this point but I do feel that there are implications for the...

Stripping fish

Last Saturday we intended planting egg boxes across the Ayr catchment to help to identify where the problems with poor stocks originate. As arranged we arrived at Boreland Hatchery at Cumnock at 9.30 but by then it was obvious that the previous evening’s rain...

Spawning is underway.

I took a trip up the upper Ayr where I’ve been regularly check for signs of spawning. With the recent cold weather, it seems that some fish have already spawned a few weeks earlier than normal. I spoke with the head bailiff this afternoon and he informed me that...