I had a wee walk along the banks of the River Ayr last evening to see how effective the Giant hogweed spraying had been. The spraying had made a huge difference although it was annoying to see the odd plant that had been missed. A follow up visit will be required to mop up the survivors.
We took great care to try and target the spraying on the hogweed only although where it is dense it is impossible to avoid collatoral damage to the more desireable native plants. The photo below is a good example of well controlled spraying.
There were quite a lot of Yellow May Duns hatching. In the past I have witnessed similar hatches being decimated by sand martins, swifts etc but there doesn’t seem to be the same number of these birds about so far this spring. This Yellow May landed beside me.
However, the young mallards were taking advantage of the hatching flies. This brood was particularly well advanced.
A nice evening for a walk by the riverbank.
BS
