Saturday 26th September: To the Philiphaugh "Salmon Homecoming" event, and set up in the visitor centre there, with the underwater cameras and the fish counter display to hand. Have the "spare" infra-red scanner with me, and a model fish and so can demonstrate how the counter works. Pretty constant flow of visitors, good supplies of tea, coffee & food from the tea-room so all went well. Occasional interuptions from the battle re-enactment cannon being fired.
Sunday 27th September: Back to Philiphaugh. First visitors include a lady who is introduced as living inTurkey. Greatly surprise her by saying a few words in Turkish - my previous job was in the Fisheries College of the University of the Meditteranean, in Turkey, though I can't remember much of the language these days. An unusual start to the day for both of us! A few more Salmon on the underwater camera and the odd one going through the counter. No spate, so no great display of salmon jumping for the visitors but the occasional fish making a bit of an effort, so some did see fish.
Monday 28th September: On leave
Tuesday 29th September: On leave.
Wednesday 30th September: At the Freshwater Fisheries Lab, Pitlochry, for a meeting of the group producing the Code of Good Practice for Fisheries Management, for which I'm in the drafting sub-group. Rest of the day working on my laptop on the report to the Technical Review group of the RTC/TF which looks at the work being done each year
Thursday 1st October: Another meeting at the FFL, this time on methods for counting Goosanders and on the licencing system for control. More work on the laptop afterwards.
Friday 2nd October: Back in the office for the monthly joint meeting of the RTC & TF. Catch up on e-mails and messages. Still none of this year's tagged fish been caught, not even the ones tagged in August. Usually we get the first recaptures while the tagging is still going or just after it finishes. The bailiffs say there is beginning to be an accumulation of fish below Coldstream, so perhaps the tagged fish are still right down river.