It's less wet this morning, but still windy and overcast.  I had a call from Crayfish Paul yesterday to tell me that he will be running his annual crayfish handling course over this coming weekend so expect to find a number of traps in the Tarn on Friday and a large group of students in Tarn Pasture on Saturday morning.

It's good that these courses run as it ensures that our native crayfish get a regular health check from the leading expert in the UK.  The annual trapping and recording provides a profile of the population over time and indicates whether the creatures are continuing to thrive and recruit at a constant rate.  By examining the individuals in the trap we can monitor for any evidence of sickness such as plague and take whatever steps are required to ensure that ailments are eliminated.

Paul tells me that he will be running two further courses, one in August and one in September so our crayfish will get a thorough going over this year.

Fingers crossed that there are no evident problems.

Ian