What a terrible day we had here yesterday.  It blew a gale for most of the hours of daylight and rained on and off well into the evening.  The valley is littered with bits of tree as is my croft, much to the delight of the goats -"all good things around us are sent from Heaven above etc, etc".

I went up to Turn Dub this morning to sample invertebrates.  As I walked along by the tarn squadrons of electric blue damsel flies flitted amongst the sward by the water and the air was full of the sound of skylarks.  The sample produced meagre results from a very high river.  Much too high to risk wading out in the main flow even wearing a life jacket.  Still, the results I did get show all families present except true mayfly so the reduced numbers are most likely due to the very high water, fierce current and more marginal sampling.  I may well sample here again later in the week when the water has dropped a bit and compare the results.

Of course, all this water is good news for those of you planning to fish the river this week.  It will drop quickly today with no appreciable rain forecast and it's already lost the heavy peat colour it was carrying yesterday so conditions should be good all week.

Ian