May overview

Well, what can we say. May acted as a reverse to the traditional April and came in like a lamb and definitely left like a lion. The month started dry and we were worried that the smolts wouldn't get out at their traditional time.No need to worry about that - a massive spate on the 15th took out the smolt trap and gave plenty of water to get the smolts out to sea. Unfortunately we were supposed to be netting on the week of the 15th.... Needless to say, that was cancelled and continuing high flows have meant that we weren't able to reschedule. Fingers crossed for June as these nettings are part of the West Coast Aquaculture Programme and include additional nettings in the Kyle of Durness and the Kinloch River, with everyone looking forward to the Kinloch which is new to the Trust.

While the weather caused a bit of a slow down within the Trust - smolt trap washed out, elver traps washed out and no netting - this unfortunately changed on the 27th with a report of mink on the north coast. This has since been confirmed and has meant phone calls and visits to assist with eradication. Mink are not native to Scotland and as such can have a catastrophic effect on the biodiversity of the area. Bird populations, such as Black Throated Divers, already hit by a cold May, are particularly vulnerable although mink are not particularly selective.

We did manage to complete part one of 'Crabby Claws' however, despite the high winds and rain causing a re-assessment of the event. Day one was cancelled, as was the camping, kayaking and snorkelling. However the P6 and P7 turned up for Day 2 and seemed to have a great time despite the weather. Nine species of seaweed were identified, together with a large number of shells, crabs and shrimps. Hopefully the P4 and P5 days will be as successful. Courtesy of the aborted camping trip we were also well supplied with food and thanks have to go to the teachers for their efforts to pile the pounds on all involved! Thanks also to The Robertson Trust for funding this activity.

The Annual Review was also completed and is ready for posting. This can be downloaded from the Website (www.wsft.co.uk/publications) or copies obtained from the Biologist. The review details the results of work undertaken during 2010, with further details of the different projects also available on the Website or from the Biologist.

Looking forward to June, we will hopefully be able to undertake the sweep nettings with results going to RAFTS for analysis with those from arond the West Coast of Scotland. Then it is the build up to the electrofishing season and hopefully a good summer.We'll be blogging a bit more regularly during the main sampling season, giving an update of our activities. We'll also be giving a midge update, which could be useful...

Elvers

A total of 7 streams are now being monitored for elvers. Numerous traps are now in situ along with temperature loggers.
First real capture occurred today with 125 captured on one small stream....hopefully just the start. 90 elvers were caught in the first trap with fewer being caught upstream. Interestingly this stream is the warmest of all the streams chosen. It is not the most southerly either and is situated in a bay/inlet as opposed to the open sea. All apart from one were glass eels, the other was a very small yellow eel, possibly one of last years migrants.

Field season starting

The two smolt traps and inumerable elver traps are now in place and waiting for the appropriate runs. As well as the fish traps the flow rate is being taken beside each elver trap as its checked and constant water temperature recorders are in each burn. This will give some interesting data and answer questions about the smolt runs as well as the elver runs. its nice to get out and start seeing fish again after the winter.

The notes from the recent Ghillies Seminar are now online at http://www.wsft.co.uk/ if anyone is interested. It was a really interesting Seminar and hopefully the notes do it justice. If you have any questions on the different talks then please drop us an e-mail at wsft@btconnect.com.

Watch this space for updates on the traps, or follow us on Twitter @wsftrust.