My ode to autumn yesterday clearly touched a raw nerve in some quarters as I had an email lamenting the lack of water in the river over the past few weeks and wishing for nightly rain.  Well, it's pretty dull and overcast here this morning, but it looks showery rather than the prelude to a deluge.  Sorry.

It's not often that crayfish make it into the pages of the national press even battered and served with chips, but there was a short article in the Telegraph on Tuesday about how police in Stuttgart had to round up a cluster of crayfish that had escaped from an Asian food shop in the City and scuttled down the street.  It just goes to prove that these crustaceans are brighter than they look.  If anyone sees a posse of whiteclaws legging it down Newhouses lane please let me know.

The same paper reports that we are in for a severe winter.  It seems that migratory swans (Bewicks) are arriving in Britain early this year which suggests that weather conditions in arctic Russia are unseasonably cold at present and we are in line to get some very low temperatures and some snow.  In fact the long range forecast for Horton gives snow showers on Saturday week.  Makes a change from the tropical conditions we experienced last winter and will help to keep Blue tongue disease out of the north of England.  We do sometimes get transitory Bewicks on the Tarn so keep a watch out for them.

The rather saccharine programme on the BBC about British wildlife is a bit 'cuddly bunny'  (especially the presenter).  However, next Wednesdays programme is about fresh water life and the trailers seem to indicate that it will feature aquatic invertebrates with some stunning shots of cased caddis so it may well be worth watching.

I'm off now to administer to this stinking cold that my young nephew gave me at the weekend.  It's the first one all year - thanks Alex!

Ian