Today's update is of the reflected sky, looking north from Ibsley Bridge first thing this morning, over North-end towards North Hucklesbrook Marsh. Water remains in the fields, slowly dropping back at an inch or so a day. The second shot is of Ellingham oxbow, which hopefully is doing the job it was designed to do in high flows. It looks superb, with five feet of water steadily flowing as it drains the fields back into the main channel just upstream of the bridge. It looks absolutely perfect for roach but it would take a brave soul to spend the last hours of daylight searching the channel for the elusive shoals. Lets hope they are there safely sheltering from the last five or six weeks of high flows. The only thing of note I spotted today, as I called in and parked in the flooded car park, was a Woodcock sat on the far bank enjoying the soft mud and dense cover.

At last it looks as if we may have a break in the weather and we will see the river retreat to within its banks. If we are to believe the forecast there is no serious rain due for a week or so and with overnight frosts some of this excess water may get the chance to clear. I can't see it doing a great deal for the coarse angling as the water remains gin clear and the temperatures are going to tumble. Given a few days the chub, perch and pike will hopefully get acclimatised and come back on the feed, the barbel may take a little longer but you just never know.

Another of those silver linings as there are over thirty Little Egret and three or four Great Egrets about the valley at the moment enoying the flood.

Water, water everywhere, just about sums it up today. The first shot is the road between Ibsley and Harbridge, up to the bottom strand of wire and pushing through. Definitely not the place to breakdown so best avoided if possible. Middle shot out to Blashford, don't even think about it! On a brighter note, a couple of the fifty odd Crossbill feeding on top of the larch today.

Last night did nothing to ease our waterlogged situation with a further helping of rain and wind. Several trees succumbed to the blow but considering the strength of the wind yesterday evening we got away with just a few twigs. The height of the river is another issue as it's come back out into the fields with vengence. Nature will eventually allow the levels to drop but it will still be very high at the start of the salmon season next month, whatever the weather does now. On a positive note as I write this the Avon is sending its freshwater homing signal way out into the channel, it should at least mean any fish in the system will not be stuck down below the Great Weir in the harbour and come rattling up river to us.

Whilst on the subject of the salmon season could I request any syndicate members who have not renewed their membership, or let us know if they are not to rejoin, please email or phone the office. We have a list of rods on the waiting list who would appreciate knowing their fate in time for the new season.

In an effort to avoid further phone calls the fallen lime in the photo, by the ford at Moylescourt, is not one of the estate's. For the most part our problems begin the other side of the Dockens Water, as discussed in the entry just the other day. I believe the Parish council are responsible for the lime in question and they already know its down. The tree in question is the ivy covered specimen in the second photo, before it fell down of course!

Its been an odd sort of weekend with very few anglers about and the high water remaining out in the fields. Despite the floods it hasn't put off the trespassers with canoes and even magnet fishermen out doing their thing, the latter of which I have to thank Jason from down at the Royalty for pointing out the error of their ways. On a more pleasant note it was also a WeBS weekend, which usually provides a few points of interest to look forward to. As it turned out the main point of note about the count was the almost total lack of ducks. With such floods one would normally expect the wildfowl to be making the most of it and appearing in their thousands. in reality I would be surprised if there were more than a couple of thousand in the entire valley. You have to have a theory and mine is that the mild weather has not forced the normal flocks of Wigeon, Pintail and Teal across Europe from the east. If that's not the reason I have no idea where they might be. Hopefully as the water levels drop and more of the meadow grass comes within reach numbers will increase. One surprise I had, as the daylight arrived and I could see across the valley, was that the trout farm have finally got around to netting all the stews, including the two main central ones that attracted all the Cormorants and Herons for their breakfast every morning. The difference to the Cormorant and Heron counts was astonishing with just twenty Cormorant and twelve Heron arriving and even those were unsuccessful in attempting to feed. That compares with counts over the previous decade of over two hundred Cormorants and one hundred plus Heron. My concern is that the displaced birds will spread out along the valley and increase the impact they have on the wild fish populations. This was partly born out by today's count with higher than normal numbers through out the rest of theh estate.
It was a bird day in more ways than one with the Starlings north of Ibsley providing their regular evening murmuration display. I haven't given much information about the Starlings as the parking at Ibsley Bridge was threatening to become a problem. My lack of entries doesn't seem to have dulled the interest in the birds and this evening there were over thirty cars parked at the bridge, or along the drove to Harbridge, as people arrived to enjoy the birds. There was an obliging Peregrine on station to provide the Starlings with incentive to put on a fine show that I imagine can't have failed to have pleased their human audience.