TALES OF THE RIVERBANK

21/02/02 Male swan attacked and injured two white geese which had landed near the Nungate Bridge. One of them was badly hurt and both swans were taken to the vet. I thought they were wild Snow Geese at first but when I heard how the public had no bother catching them, they must have been from a private lake.

05/02 Swans have five cygnets from seven eggs, two are infertile and I removed them when the parents took the youngsters down river to shallow water. They do this every year as soon as the last one is hatched.

06/06/02 Saw a roe deer at the Abbey Bridge. It crossed the river into Amisfield Park.

27/06/02 I noticed a duck with ten ducklings and three of them were bright yellow. I wondered how long they would last and as it was, the three yellow ones were taken by gulls within days.

31/07/02 a gull dropped a good sized trout onto the Victoria weir and before it could wriggle down to the water at the bottom of the weir, a heron came from nowhere like an avenging angel, grabbed and swallowed the trout struggling to get it down it’s throat.

01/08/02 Tyne in spate for three days.

03/08/02 This night after ten o’clock when it was grey dark, Robert Ingle watched a sea trout make a run up the Victoria weir followed by an otter which caught and killed the fish before it reached the top. Seconds later, it was joined by three other otters, probably two youngsters and their parents, a family hunting party.

10/08/02 Two kingfishers at the same weir – river running full since start of the month.

09/09/02 Moderate spate.

08/09/02 Saw Albino rabbits at east end of Amisfield Park. They don’t survive long with their white coats. This proved just two days later a fox crossed my path at the same spot with a rabbit in its mouth and although it wasn’t a white rabbit, it shows a white rabbit would be easier for the fox to see.

15/09/02 Spotted an albino mink at the Maltings. I knew it was a mink or an otter when I heard the racket the ducks were making and were all out of the water and on the bank with every ducks eyes looking in the direction of the mink or where they had last seen it.

12/10/02 From the end of August to Friday 11^th October with the exception of two rainy days, we had an Indian summer. If only we could get six weeks like that in our so-called summer when temperatures are warmer.

15/10/02 River in spate for three days. Police came to the Tyne Court with flood warnings. Water stopped a couple of feet below the top of the wall.

18/10/02 Three more days of spate. The scaffolding across the river at Abbey Bridge was utterly destroyed by trees coming down with the flood water. Good run of sea trout after spate.

03/11/02 Tyne in spate again.

12/11/02 Counted twenty swans in the flooded field of Amisfield which runs down to the river.