AT last the salmon are leaping along the Teme.

Three weeks later than usual because of the lack of rain, the river is now just about high enough for the annual salmon run towards the breeding grounds.

"We expect to see many hundreds over the next few weeks," said Dinham Weir and Millennium Green trustee David Edwards.

There will be a chance to watch what he describes as "this annual miracle of nature" on Sunday at Dinham Weir. Other Sunday Watches will follow.

Local environment agency fisheries officer Bill Burley will be there at 10am to explain why salmon travel upstream.

"It is a wonderful experience and we urge the people of Ludlow to turn out with their cameras," said Mr Edward.

The salmon come in from the Atlantic to seek out the breeding grounds where they themselves were born. They have been stacked up in the Severn near Worcester, waiting for enough rain to fill the Teme. Otherwise they find it difficult to leap the weirs and they often exhaust themselves trying.

Once they join the Teme, some make for the Onny and the Corve. Others rush headlong towards the gravel filled stretches of the Upper Teme.

More rain is needed as Mr Burley explained: "We were really concerned at the low water levels but now feel that the run will be rescued. Seeing a salmon in full leap at a weir is one of the outstanding sights in the whole of nature. People who have never seen it on their very own doorstep are simply missing a great spectacle."

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