Oh good! it's a wet (very), grey and gloomy morning here in the valley.  Fortunately I just finished milking and seeing to the livestock before it started chucking it down which it's doing with a vengeance just now.  Far from ideal fishing conditions, but at least the rain will bring the river level up again.

Paul Bradley dropped by on Sunday on his way up to Ling Gill to populate the canary box which may tell us if crayfish plague is still present in the river.  His Labrador bitch has just had 6 pups (4 dogs and 2 bitches) and he seems delighted as all seven are doing well. We were going over to look at the hatchery on Sunday evening, but the recent floods have damaged the cage which holds the monitoring crayfish so Paul spent rather longer in Ling Gill than he planned and came out fairly wet and dishevelled so the hatchery can wait for another time.

There is still a good stock of native crayfish above the waterfalls at Ling Gill and these creatures are surviving at about the highest altitude of any population in the country.  What is unclear is why they are not naturally repopulating the river as they wash over the falls.  The fear is that there is still a plague hot-spot at the foot of the falls which is wiping out any creatures that come over.  It's very difficult to prove this one way or the other and the test that Paul is doing he fears will be inconclusive.  We shall see.

Since it's not a day for outdoor work I think I will put together a summer MAA Newsletter.  We usually have one in August and there is plenty to report to those members who don't have Internet access and can't read this blog.

Ian