By The Silvery Tay

There is a bit of a debate over which is Britain's longest river; the Severn or the Thames. I have no intention of adding to this debate, but I do believe that the River Tay is Britain's largest river. By largest I am referring to the volume of water flowing down the river each day; and with an average daily flow of 3,326 million gallons, the Tay has more water flowing down it than the Severn and the Thames combined. Impressive or what?
Anyway we had a little trip recently with our motorhome to Scone Caravan Park, which afforded us some cracking views along the banks of the magnificent River Tay.
First of all we had a trip into the fair city of Perth, and after a nice cup of coffee in Brown & Black's we headed to the North Inch for a riverside walk:

View Across the Tay from North Inch

The sun was shining and the temperature was surprisingly comfortable for early May so we enjoyed our stroll, taking in the scenery, including the magnificent Perth Bridge:

Perth Bridge (aka Smeaton's Bridge)

 Smeaton's Bridge (aka Perth Bridge)

This bridge was built in 1771 by John Smeaton and is often referred to as the Auld Brig by locals. It has certainly stood the test of time.
We stopped to admire the bridge and take some photos:

Moira at Perth's Auld Brig

I was intrigued by this weird sculpture of a very fat fish and a cartoon-like bird:

Fat Fish and Fat Gull-Hawk

Eddie with Weird Sculpture

I understand it is called "The Eagle of Perth" by artist Shona Kinloch .................. I think she skipped the anatomy class at art school that day!
There is an art trail through Perth, I must check it out one of these days.
Further along the river there is a viewing platform which has a huge curved railing and you could imagine yourself being at the stern of the Titanic (if you have a vivid imagination that is!)

The Silvery Tay from the Viewing Platform

One thing you will notice about Perth is that it has quite a few churches and very Presbyterian in its outlook. In fact it was only a few years back that a shopping visit to Perth on a Sunday was nigh impossible, with very few shops and cafes open and certainly no pubs in the city centre.
We passed by the impressive St Matthews Church of Scotland with its steeple and across the water was the slightly less ostentatious Kinnoull Parish Church:

St Matthews Church and Steeple

Kinnoull Parish Church

Shortly after this we reached another bridge across the Tay, this was a modern(ish) concrete bridge called Queen's Bridge. It was built to replace an older steel bridge constructed in 1900 as the plaque explains:

Queen's Bridge Plaque

It doesn't have the look of Smeaton's Bridge so I didn't bother photographing it, but it did provide a good platform for looking back down the river to a more scenic part of Perth:

Perth from Queen's Bridge

That was basically the end of our riverside walk in Perth, lunch was calling us, followed by a swatch round the shops (yawn!)

The next day was apparently "the Royal Wedding" and as I had no intention of watching Prince Charming and Cinderella getting married I went for a walk down by the riverside near to the campsite.

Track Leading Down to the Riverside

View of Farmland and Woodland near to Campsite

It was a pleasant enough walk down towards the river, the only downside being that there had been a massive hatch of black flies (you can probably spot one in the first photo above). I think they were St Mark's Flies and whilst they don't seem to bite they can be very annoying as they fly about your head ......... I hurried on.
Down by the river it was a much more pleasant affair, the Tay was glistening in the sunshine and the flies had gone:

River Tay at Campsite Fishing Grounds

Across the River Tay from Campsite Fishing Grounds

At this stretch of the river the campsite actually had fishing rights and you could buy a permit for a few pounds (which is a lot, lot cheaper than fishing at other stretches of the river Tay).
As I had no fishing tackle with me I rejoined the riverside track and moved further up the river bank:

Riverside Track

It was a very pleasant walk along this riverside track which had lots of trees, shrubs and wildflowers to enjoy:

Wildflowers along the Riverside Track

Bluebells

Crosswort

Red Campion

There were also plenty of butterflies to see, including Orange-tip, Small Tortoiseshell and Peacock Butterflies:

Peacock Butterfly

I heard lots of birds singing but they were proving very elusive and it was hard to try and get a photo or video of them. There were Skylarks singing high in the sky, too high to focus on; Yellowhammers calling from the trees, but not showing themselves; a Sedge Warblers with its scratchy song in the reeds, but darting down when I tried to video it; a Whitethroat singing in the bushes, but only venturing out briefly to do a display flight.
Here is about the best video I got of the Whitethroat display flight, with a slowed down portion so you might have a chance of actually seeing it:

A short while later I was able to get back down to the river bank and was greeted by some lovely views:

Looking Downstream

Looking Upstream

Once again there were plenty of wildflowers to enjoy:

Wildflowers on the Banks of the Tay

Common Comfrey by the Tay

I was also pleased to see that the birds here were a bit more 'showy' as I enjoyed watching some Black-headed Gulls skimming the surface of the water in search of something to eat. This one flew so near to the water surface its wings dipped in several times as it 'quartered' the area:

Then there was the spectacle of three Greylag Geese flying overhead:

I continued along the riverside track a little further, until I found another good place to stop and enjoy the views:

Tayside Track

A Good Place to Stop

On a large rock near the opposite bank I spotted a Common Sandpiper preening itself. I had no sooner fired up my camcorder when it decided to fly off ............ I did at least capture the distinctive bow-winged flight of a Common Sandpiper:

You might have noticed that I had slowed it down a bit for you.
Further upstream on the opposite bank I watched this Grey Heron patrolling the bank side looking for something to eat:

You can see in this previous video of the Heron how deep the water is just a few feet from the bank, luckily Herons have long legs.
Continuing along the bank I came to a spit of land (rocks really) that jutted out in to the river. I was reliably informed that the Roman's had a ford across this part of the river............. which they used to traverse between two camps on either side of the river............ could this be said ford?

Remnants of Ford Across the River Tay

Brave folk these Romans, even crossing the Tay at low, summer flows sounds daunting to me. I have seen whole trees washed down the Tay to Perth in the winter floods!!
When I first approached this spit of land I was lucky enough to spot another Common Sandpiper on the rocks. It was pretty well camouflaged, but it did hang around long enough for me to get this video clip:

Great views of Sandpiper, I also saw lots of Sandmartins, but they were flying too fast for me to get a decent video of them.
I decided to head back to the campsite. By the time I got to the motorhome the royal wedding was almost over (never mind, what a pity, I am sure I will catch the next one!).
After a spot of lunch and a bit of lazing around I managed to pursued Moira that a little walk down to the river would be very therapeutic. We took a leisurely stroll down and saw most of the wildlife I had seen in the morning. In addition we were lucky enough to see a pair of Greylag Geese with four or five little goslings............ very cute! Unfortunately I forgot to bring my camcorder with me.
We also explored the possible Roman ford:

Moira By the Banks of the Silvery Tay

Eddie at Possible Roman Ford

We concluded that there was no way we were going to attempt a crossing and headed back to the campsite for a well earned cup of tea.

That's the end of our little trip to the banks of the Tay, hope you enjoyed it.

Take Care

TeddyEdward