I got a false sense of euphoria first thing this morning when I awoke to blue sky and wall to wall sunshine.  Wow, I thought. summer is back.  It was not to be.  The clouds are building strongly from the west, the sun has gone and it looks increasingly like ran is not far off.  If we do get some sunny spells during the day then the river should fish very well.  The water is almost perfect for trout fishing and a little sun will bring on good hatches of fly.

My plan is to do an invertebrate check at New Inn later this morning then follow this up with checks at Turn Dub and Tay bridge tomorrow.  As usual I will post the results on line.  Fingers crossed that all is well, but there seems no lack of wild fish at present.

One of the evening rituals here is watching the bats hawking after flies just as it gets dark.  We have a day shift (swallows) and a night shift (bats) that combine to keep the flies in check and it's a delightful experience to stand by the back gate watching these tiny creatures swooping and wheeling over the pastures towards the river.  Their ability to navigate obstacles is remarkable as is their seeming lack of concern for the presence of people.  You can walk out among them and they simply adjust their trajectory to avoid making contact.  My ears are not sensitive enough to hear them, but others tell me that you can just make out their high pitched calls.  There seem to be a lot more bats about this year so presumably breeding has been good.  I remember a couple of years ago standing watching the evening aerobatics when a dark shape suddenly hurtled out of the giant sycamore in the garden.  The sparrow hawk came away with empty talons on that occasion, but I have never seen a hawk attempt to catch bats before or since.

I have attached Paul Bradley's report on crayfish on the upper Ribble.  Just click on the link below to read it.

Ian

Post script - The sky has just turned blue again so the day may be rather better than I anticipated.