Monday 23rd June: Today we were supposed to be netting the river near Coldstream, one of our netting sites that we wanted to sample again, and had invited our Benefactors along to see the action. However, the rain over the weekend had put the river up and it was impossible - low flows are needed for this. Instead, Plan B, we showed the Benefactors a film of a previous netting and I gave the talk on Beavers I had given at the 25th Anniversary workshop. Disappointing for all, but good for the river.

Tuesday 24th June: In the office most of the day, getting the last of last year's data sorted and filed in preparation for the start of the new fieldwork season at the end of the month. James and Kenny are sorting out the electric-fishing sites we will be doing on the Whiteadder and Till. In the afternoon, an outing to the Selkirk fish counter to clear debris out of it after the recent spate and clean the camera tunnel.

Wednesday 25th June:  More data sorting, getting the downstream, smolt data computerised. Analyses of Autumm upstream migration of adult Sea-trout at the Peebles trap shows that they need a flow of 25cms or more on the water gauge after the 1st of November in order to get up this stream. There were no such flows in 2004 or 2007 and no Sea-trout. There were some days of this flow in 2005, so nine Sea-trout and a good many days more in 2006, so 22 Sea-trout. Knowing how dry Autumns can affect the ability of spawning fish to get up smaller burns is useful in interpreting the electric-fishing results - we need now to see if we can relate the number of trout fry we find in the burns to the weather conditions the previous Autumn. At lunchtime, downriver to collect up scale packets.

Thursday 26th June: Cleaned the Peebles trap in the morning, been a big spate there, but too late for the smolt run. More data sorting and updating in the office. A request in from the Institute of Aquaculture at Stirling University to  arrange collection of more samples of fish with "Red Vents" again this year - should get report on last year's soon. They tell me they did find the expected, that the fish with external symptoms had masses more worms around the vent than the those without such signs - and also that the fish with the worm infections had bacterial infections as well.

Friday 27th June: Weekly meeting in the morning, no specific topic. Admin of various sorts - notes for RAFTS on training of freshwater fisheries biologists and some work for the RAFTS Scale-reading group, collating replies from different biologists on the data they collect with scale samples and read off them.