It's a glorious morning here for a change.  We have an almost cloudless cornflower blue sky, it's warm and virtually windless.  How quickly one forgets the miserable weather of the past weeks on a morning like this.  The river is still in good nick with plenty of clear water on most of the runs.  Flies are out and about already this morning so a trout has everything it needs in life and should be amenable to a little persuasion from a confection of fur and feather.

As I walked down to do the milking this morning I was stunned by the number of dunnock mobbing the bird table by the goat yard.  There were literally dozens of these nondescript little brown birds hanging around in the bushes waiting their turn at the nuts in the feeders. They all took off at my approach and it seemed like a scene from Hitchcock's "The Birds" as this flock spiralled up into the morning air.  I saw a similar scene last week, but this time it was starlings on the mountain ash trees by the garden gate.  These were mostly juveniles, again they were present by the dozen and were busy stripping the bright red berries in a very systematic fashion starting at the to and working down.

It seems to have been a good breeding year for birds.  Perhaps the damp weather has produced a good supply of food enabling more chicks to survive.

Has anyone taken a really close look at these small fish that are regularly being caught on the river this year.  There is a suspicion voiced by some that these may be salmon parr.  Young trout and salmon do look similar, but are distinguishable by the shape of the tail and position of the eye.  It would be good to get a handle on whether we really do have a bumper recruitment of wild brown trout or we are seeing the result of the efforts that the EA have made over the past few years to promote the recruitment of salmon in the Ribble.

Ian