With the river Clyde being so high over the holidays and with the ground being so saturated with flooding in places across the county; I can’t help but wonder how our wildlife is faring. It is common for otters to have more than one holt across a stretch of the river so that if one becomes unusable they can move to another.

The few locals I have spoken to, have informed me that this is the highest the river has been in over 10yrs. I just hope our otters had a holt high enough above the water level to be kept safe and warm. Our resident heron probably went somewhere less dangerous to fish, possibly and open body of still water. It must be harder for them to catch food though – there would be the same amount of fish but more water. For any creatures that do live along the river, they don’t have to worry for too long about the levels. It is amazing how quickly it drops if there hasn’t been any rain for a day.

Earlier in the week my colleagues and I could hear a dipper just outside the office window. I’m not sure how they go about hunting for food when the river is that high. They usually dip down underneath the water to catch insects from the river bed. The river would have been flowing very fast, visibility would have been poor and the water would have been deeper. I would assume they would go to the smaller tributaries – streams and burns that flow into the Clyde to find their food.

I’m happy to announce our boardwalk survived being underwater, I’m not sure our old one would have done as well!

Laura Preston – Scottish Wildlife Trust, Falls of Clyde Ranger