Monday 3rd: Out with Sean to the Tweedsmuir trap to continue repairs at lower water levels. Got some done, but could still do with lower flows. Back in the office, did bits and pieces of admin and writing.

The reports of good Sea-trout have been almost continuous since April and this could well be the third record year for them in a row. It's been good for the whole East coast apparently, from the English Channel right up to the Aberdeenshire rivers (at least). The condition of the fish has been excellent as well, which suggests no shortage of food, though earlier this year poor seabird breeding success was being blamed on a lack of Sandeels. Sea-trout are also great Sandeel eaters, so either they have found something else to feed on or the Sandeels are there but just not catchable by birds.

An element of Tweed's Sea-trout make a long migration down the English coast and along the Dutch, to the Frisian Islands and the Waddenzee, the area where the Danish peninsula juts out. This has just been accepted as a World Heritage site by UNESCO because of its unique character.  It's worth looking at the area on Google Earth as it shows a network of shallow sandy seas and islands which must make ideal feeding habitat  for Sea-trout. The estuary of the Elbe is there as well - perhaps Tweed Sea-trout visit Hamburg ?

Tuesday 4th August: Out with a James to join with a team from the  Environment Agency to electric-fish sites in the English part of the Tweed to get data for the Water Framework Directive. Three sites today, one at the bottom of the Whiteadder, one on small burn near Hornecliffe and one at the bottom of the Till. This last produced Gudgeon fry, the first I'd ever seen - Gudgeon are widespread on the lower Till, though an alien species. Destroyed a well-hidden Giant Hogweed plant at the Whiteadder site - there's been a huge improvement in the Hogweed situation, but there are these solitary, lurking, plants that need to be sniffed out and dealt with.

Wednesday 5th August: Out again with the Environment Agency team, to do two more sites in the Till catchment. One was on the College Burn (just below The Cheviot). This has been hit by two massive spates within the last 10 months (last September and just recently). Its course has changed greatly, there are piles of gravel and stones all along it, but the dense growth of Whins along the sides has restricted the width of the erosion - I'll try and take a series of photos to make a baseline record so changes can be recorded. In terms of fish, however, the stream is stuffed with trout fry so the flood has had no effect - and we even got an Eel of around 60cms. How larger fish like that manage in major spates is always a puzzle to me, but they obviously survive perfectly well.

Thursday 6th August: Out along the Teviot to take samples for genetics analysis - from the Kale, Rule, Borthwick and the main Teviot at Denholm. Two more sites to do later.

Friday 7th August: Weekly meeting in the morning, out to do more trap repairs in the afternoon.