Leap of faith

This afternoon we went to Buchanty Spout which is a waterfall and natural salmon leap on the River Almond quite near to Crieff. For some time now I had heard that the wild salmon were having difficulty in satisfying their inbred urge to move up this particular river to their spawning grounds due to the unseasonally low state of the water. However the recent deluge made a trip to the waterfall a promising outing and we were not disappointed. During the hour that we were there we must have seen at least 50 to 60 attempts - it might have been the same fish but i doubt it! Anyway, watching and admiring the feat was one thing, trying to capture it on the camera was quite another and we all came away with loads of superb shots of the waterfall with maybe a glimpse of a fish disappearing beneath the foam in order to regroup, gather strength and try again. In the scheme of things I was quite pleased with this shot as it also shows the spume of water splashing up from the rocks indicating the force of the gushing water that these gallant salmon were having to conquer. Occasionally one would land on the rock and you could hear a sickening 'thwack' as it did so - I just hope some of them made it safely.

You can see the excellent shot taken by my brother-in-law which shows the colour of the fish so well.