The River Almond

I took a walk along the river bank today. In the grand scheme of things, I am not long in the tooth(yet), but I find it fascinating to watch the bank morph over time.

For people with less time on their hands, please click the "Back" button now and save yourself.

More than twenty years ago now, I embarked on a project to try to explain the sinuosity of rivers, and why they meander. Naturally I failed, but the rivers carry on regardless. Today I walked past what was once a 'straight section' to see the early stages of a meander being created. One of the banks has been undercut by winter flows over the past decade so that it now forms a vertical wall of sandy earth. In the middle of the river lies a new island and the river has been squeezed into a narrower. faster channel. This channel in turn has now moved its focus to the other bank, and has started to undermine the opposite bank.

In the sandy wall on the far bank there are a colony of nesting Sand Martins who have the perfect existence. Swooping low over the water below their nests in the sandcliff, catching flies to feed. In the warm sun today I watched them for a while, as butterflies and bees buzzed past.

Too fast for me to photograph though.