Another wet start.  It's raining quite hard at present but without the strong winds of the past few days so it feels rather warmer.  The forecast is for a dryer afternoon so river fishing should be very good after lunch.

The Tarn is now back to normal water level so getting the boat out will no longer involve the labours of Hercules.  The water is fairly cloudy at present.  Whether this is due to microphyes or just disturbed sediment caused by the heavy rain and strong winds I'm not too sure but I suspect the latter.

Paul Bradley known to most as "Crayfish" Paul came to see me yesterday afternoon. He is running another of his crayfish courses up at Malham Tarn Field Centre this week so we went up to our Tarn to set crayfish traps ready for the students to record the results today.  In all we set 12 traps which should give a good enough sample to enable us to monitor the health and population density of our native white clawed residents.  This is a great benefit not only to the students who get real hands on experience of these creatures in their native habitat but also provides the MAA with a regular and free scientific monitor service under licence.  It's ever more clear just how important nationally the Tarn is to the future of this endangered species.

We will check the traps about lunch time today and see how things are.  The highlight of these courses is always the midnight foray to the Tarn to see the crayfish doing what crayfish naturally do.  Lets hope for the promised dry evening.  More on this tomorrow.

I'll also report on David Marsden's email about the history of the Hot Pot Supper or Farmer's Dinner as it was known.  It's been going far longer than I imagined.

Ian