Snow Melt Adds To Heavy Rainfall

The weather has been very wet here since the early hours of Sunday morning. Heavy rainfall combined with milder temperatures has meant that much of the snow from the higher ground has been melting, swelling the rivers and burns and making them run in high spate. You can see from the picture and video below just what a difference this can make

A tranquil view of Gilbert's Bridge in Glen Tilt on a 'normal' day.
The river is relatively calm. in this picture

The video above was taken from the top of Gilbert's Bridge on Sunday morning. 

The river was in heavy spate and flowing very fast!

Winter Scenes

The Dunkeld end of the estate and area around Loch Ordie was looking very wintry yesterday. It was a very changeable day: bright sunshine one moment, followed by grey, snow laden skies the next, with very little warning of the transition in between. This made the planned work of counting water birds for the BTO's Wetland Bird Survey (which we have mentioned before) slightly more difficult than ususal. It also meant that the photograph of a cormorant on Rotmell Loch contained more snow than feathers, even though the bird was only a short distance away - so there are no bird pictures below, unfortunately. Instead you can see some scenes of snow and sunshine.

This 'ice plant' has been formed by the water from wind-driven
waves on Loch Ordie soaking the rushes and freezing, over
and over, until the whole plant became encased in ice.

One of the brighter moments of the day, Looking west from the
main track up to Loch Ordie

Land Rover with the bleak grey-white sky behind,
 in the middle of a flash 'blizzard'

...And a view from inside the vehicle (it was stopped when this was taken!)