Notification: I must point out that I have special permission to be on the Eversley quarry site of Fleet hill farm, Manor farm and the Hampshire part. These are not open areas for general access. Public rights of way are being incorporated into the sites to enable people to enjoy the new reserves.

Please bear this in mind. Although I refer them in my blog as reserves, they are still, technically, part of an operating quarry. So please keep to the existing public rights of way, and wait for the new ones to be adopted. Also it is will be even more important to stick to the public rights of way when they do become reserves so as not to disturb the wildlife.

Update: Apparently Cemex and RSPB have been working together to restore 1000 hectares of ex-gravel works to prime habitat. The aim was to achieve this by 2020. They actually managed the 1000th hectare in 2017.

Eversley was the first hectare to be restored under this partnership; actually the Moor Green lakes and surrounding area e.g. Horseshoe lake. This youtube video features scenes from Manor farm which regular readers will be familiar with.  Here is an explanation on the RSPB's website, and here is one on the Cemex website about them being runner up in the MPA Quarries from Nature awards due to their work on the Eversley quarry restoration.

27th Jan 2018 - we get a mention in The Telegraph: 50 disused quarries turned into wildlife habitats to help Britain's endangered wildlife. "Eversley Quarry in Hampshire was the first to be completed following three years of work by wildlife and conservation experts."  Ahhh, they missed phase 2, the subject of this blog.

This blog is about a proposed nature reserve on the Cemex gravel extraction works between Finchampstead and Eversley. There are three parts to the reserve.

1. Moor Green Lakes.  This reserve already exists.  It was restored by Cemex some years ago.
2. Manor Farm.
3. Fleet Hill Farm.

Initially, this blog concentrates on the restoration efforts Cemex engaged in prior to handing over the reserve to a conservation group for day to day management.  Once this happens, I would then hope to chart the efforts required to turn the raw restoration into a fully operational nature reserve.

That being said, there is already a wealth of wildlife inhabiting the site, mostly as Cemex have ceased extracting gravel, and appears to be a mecca for bird watchers.  We often encounter them as we walk around the footpath, humping their tripods, spotting scopes, cameras and binoculars or perhaps exchanging notes with each other on what they have spotted that day.

Although I live about three miles away from the proposed new reserve, I only learnt about it recently. I started to photograph the efforts Cemex are expanding in clearing the gravel works and, as is the nature of such endeavours, realised I had a photo journal before I knew it.

Extent of entire reserve

The plan below shows the extent of the reserve.  It stretches for 2.2 miles along the Blackwater river.

Moor Green Farm is already a nature reserve, namely Moor Green Lakes nature reserve. For more details see here Moor Green Lakes Group or here RSPB entry. Perhaps you could join us on one of our work parties to aid in the conservation of this reserve.

Fleet Hill farm is supposed to be ready as a reserve by end of summer 2017. Apart from a few sub-phases, this appears to have been achieved.

Approximately 18 months later, Manor Farm will be incorporated into the reserve. A target date in a planning application I read suggested that restoration of Manor farm should be completed by 31st December 2018. Personally, as of 7th October 2018, I can't see this happening unless the scale of infill is altered drastically or a lot more resources are thrown at the restoration effort.

You may notice, dear reader, quite a few differences between the various plans and google earth images of the reserve displayed below. I am not sure why.  I suspect that some of the differences are due to extraction of gravel. This is certainly true of the Fleet Hill farm portion of the reserve. Note: I have since discovered that the plans for the restoration were fairly fluid and subject to numerous alterations.

Update: I am keeping my speculations for historical reasons. Part of the 'fun' of keeping this blog is working out what Cemex and Inert are up to.  Well, the later posts show that they are infilling Finch pond. They may also modify Cormorant and Manor farm lakes to look more like the plan.

Plan of proposed Manor Farm part of reserve and image from Google Earth

NOTE: I've finally got around to updating the google earth image with the expanded reference points. Hopefully, this will allow you to navigate my text a little better.

The plan below is the Manor Farm extension. Below that is a Google Earth image as of March 2017. Note the difference between the it and the plan.  Particularly Finch Lake, which is now huge, and what I have been calling Cormorant Lake which is supposed to be joined to the bigger lake to its right.  The Pump Station area, currently on dry land, would be in the middle of a lake, according to the Cemex plan.

As described above we start our walk at the Moor Green Lake car park, located in the top right hand corner of the map. The details shown in this map are the proposed public right of ways, and possibly some further landscaping. As an example, currently there is a sizable lake at the point I call the Pump Station.  This lake is not shown in the map.

There are large areas of this new reserve I have not photographed as we have tended to keep to the current public footpaths.

We cross the Longwater road at the culvert/entrance to the reserve  to get enter Fleet Hill farm immediately opposite.

Plan of proposed Fleet Hill farm part of the reserve and image from Google Earth.

This is the Fleet Hill farm extension showing proposed structure and public right of ways. Below that is a Google Earth as of Sept 2017.

Stone Crusher lake is a small manky green lake. The plans below suggest that it will be filled in.

Swan lake is also a small manky green lake, which according to the plan will get bigger.

There is a large part of this extension that I have not really photographed as we have tended to stick to the footpaths. Most all the restoration had been completed by the time I started photographing the works.

Update 7th October 2018. I suspect that apart from a few small pieces of work (e.g. completion of bridle path) Fleet Hill farm is pretty much restored. One of the planning applications I read said that tree planting will occur in the year after restoration has been completed. As this happened earlier on in 2018, this would suggest that, apart from a few sub-phases, restoration is complete.

This post shows how the Fleet Hill Farm and Manor Farm parts of the Cemex Eversley gravel works has changed over the years since 1999.  Credit has to go to the Google corporation for their Google Earth initiative and also for developing Googe Earth Pro.  This free application allowed me to explore a history of the images Google have taken of our planet since 1999, and to also save images.

I would recommend you download Google Earth Pro.  It allows to you to zoom in to see an incredible amount of detail.

As well as showing the evolution of the area, the images also demonstrate the evolution of the techniques Google used to photograph the landscape.  If you look closely you will notice that Google had problems stitching some parts of the images together.  They also either went through a number companies to do the fly over and photography or simply garnered images from different GIS companies over the years.

The images below have been reduced considerably in size from the Google Earth images. It would take ages for this blog to load across the network if I left them at full resolution.

Note. I've used Google Earth as was readily available and convenient to use.  There are other GIS sources available, which may provide even higher resolution images or greater quality.  You pays your money and takes your choice.

Several times in this blog I mention the complex geology of the area.  I found a map, courtesy of my old College, that goes part way to showing this complexity. Greater detail can be found here Eocene sands and iron map a natty title that sort of rolls of the tongue.

I've taken the liberty of inserting a much reduced image in this blog. The vertical red line marks the Longwater road. If you zoom in you may just make out the words "Cemex works" to the left of it. This is actually on the Fleethill farm part of the works. To the immediate right of the red line is Manor farm. Count two large lakes to the right and you reach Moor Green lakes.

Quite a landmark are our works.

It is 8:15 on Saturday morning. Normally I'd still be stomping around Manor farm, with a view to heading home. This morning, however, I elected not to pop down for my regular early morning exercise; instead having a few extra moments of kip before getting up on a bright, if somewhat windy and cold morning.

My usual Wednesday jaunt revealed a silent Manor farm but for two diggers. I spotted them having a conflab near the pump station, before they took off and trundled south to Chandlers farm.  As best I can make out, they flattened the long bank of spoil they created when they dug out the drainage channel some weeks back.

I could not see any evidence of any other work being carried out on Manor farm this past week.  Even the piles of spoil which were around the parked bulldozer, which I photographed last Saturday, had not been pushed into Cormorant lake. It was a scene reminiscent of the Marie Celeste i.e. everything suddenly abandoned.

There appeared to be muted activity on the west side of Chandlers farm. Inert appeared to be continuing to operate on the crater (i.e. former lake) near the sports ground. I can't see the east side of Chandlers farm (i.e. by the works buildings) from the south footpath, so can only gauge what is going on by how much noise is being generated.  I admit I am not too interested in what happens on Chandlers farm as most of it is being turned into sports amenities.

So as not to waste a trip on Saturday, I took the opportunity to visit Manor farm on Friday morning. Though I have to add that it was reasonably sunny with almost no wind, which would give me good conditions to photograph wildlife.

There was no activity of any sort on either Manor farm or the west side of Chandlers farm. An extraordinary sight, as even at its quietest I would expect to see the odd bulldozer, digger or lorry lurking around.  A cacophony of noise pointed to much activity on the east side of Chandlers farm, by the works buildings.  Indeed I spotted a bulldozer reversing west, to just be spied from the Bailey bridge, before pushing forward east with soil.

These works buildings are scheduled to be demolished (allegedly by the end of this year), and an extra 50,000 tonnes of gravel extracted shortly after; before the whole area is restored, allegedly by the middle of next year.  I suspect this schedule will slip by a year.

I have seen Inert operate in this manner, over the past year and a bit. They flit about the site, with what appears to be no coherent plan, working on a bit, abandoning it, and then returning some time later. I'm sure there is a plan somewhere.  :-) :-) :-)

Back to my obsession: the pump. It appeared to be working on Wednesday, in that there was a reasonable flow from their drainage channels into the Blackwater. Only I couldn't tell if this was due to the pump or simply run off from the deluge we had.  By my Friday visit, the drainage channels were dry, and the pump was definitely silent.

You may, dear reader, have correctly surmised that I took a wander onto Manor farm on Friday morning. I never do this, normally, as it is dangerous with all the heavy plant trundling around.  However, I decided it was safe due to it being obvious that all activity was concentrated around the works buildings. Plus, I could return to the MGLG car park via various paths (made by animals) I know along Manor lake and the grasslands, should a vehicle appear on Manor farm.

Wildlife was a little thin on the ground on Manor farm. Not that I stayed long enough to get a really good assessment. My concern is more photography, especially flying. So unless it is floating, flying or flitting about in plain sight, I tend not to see it. I hear them more than I see them.

I did spot some Snipe on their usual haunt round Manor lake; flying off at speed before dipping back into reeds or sedge. While a couple of Buzzards soared above Chandlers farm next to the Blackwater.

MGLG around Colebrook lake was a mixed bag.  Colebrook lake (north) was a hive of activity, not least due to the gulls and tern.  Colebrook lake (south) was much, much quieter.  Most all of the birds that usually bob about this part of Colebrook lake have flown off to their breeding ground.  Still, the bright conditions on Friday morning did lend itself to a couple of good shots, even if most of the flying birds did not cooperate i.e. disappearing behind branches, flying off before I'd even got the lens cover off, etc.

A couple of photos then.  The Great Crested Grebes do tend to freak me out a little. They have red eyes. I also feel that people do not realise how colourful or exotic looking our birds can be.  Check out the iridescent plumage and head gear on the Lapwings.  The Great Crested Grebe was photographed on Colebrook lake (south) while the Lapwing were on Colebrook lake (north).

 With a headline like that how can you not read this week's 'thrilling' instalment. Our bulldozer driver has been a busy little bee, this week.  Also, it has to be said, have the lorry drivers. They have been all over the land mass and the latest infill near the pump station; well only the bulldozer was on the latter part.  Looking at the forensic evidence (i.e. caterpillar tracks in t'mud) our bulldozer driver also took a wee jaunt over to the Finch pond infill, and flirted briefly with the Longwater road entrance.

The upshot of all this activity on the land mass and around the mighty heap was that my stomp was much easier. No slogging through gooey mud, though I still had to be careful where I stepped.  There is still a lot of that grey mud the consistency of quicksand lurking around.

Infill has continued apace on the north and west shore of Cormorant lake (south), plus the east shore near the pump station.  This will continue over the coming weeks or, dare I say, months. I shall stick my neck out and say that the scrape will be a feature. Inert are taking a lot of care to infill around it.

I have mixed feelings about the scrape. One part of me wants it as large as possible, or even to have more than one scrape.  Another part of me (that part frozen to the core on a Sunday morning, stood on an exposed scrape with driving rain and biting wind, clearing weeds and shrub) wants the scrape to remain its current size.  Nah, go for a big'un - we're hard!  :-) :-) :-)

I did think of hopping over to the north embankment to take a photo of the latest infill. However, after an hour of walking around the site with the remnants of a filthy rotten cold, I decided to head home and make myself a cup of hot coffee.

Oh, the pump was silent.  Strangely, water levels were on the low side in Cormorant lake, even with spill over from Manor lake south. I suspect they will rise dramatically after storm Freya hits tomorrow morning.  That will make a mess of the mud for Monday.  It could be hard going for the bulldozer and trucks.

The erstwhile pump station bridge has taken a bit of a bashing this week. I didn't wander over to have a look see, but it did have one of its walls missing.  Very strange.

We'll kick off the piccies with my best estimation about the extent of the latest infill.  It's best guess on the drawing, partly as the google earth image was taken when water levels were much lower.  Therefore I feel Inert have possible filled in more of Cormorant lake than I have given them credit for.

Now on to wildlife; I'll talk about Skylarks in a bit.  There wasn't a huge amount around, this morning.  Again, partly due to the time of year (i.e. gearing up for breeding), partly the activity going on and partly as a lot of the birds tend to fly off to feeding grounds shortly after sunrise.  I did espy one Roe deer near the east embankment, plus something small, fast, brown and furry scurrying along side the gate at the Longwater road entrance. Possibly a rat or, due to its slenderness, a weasel.

I did spot about three Egyptian geese lurking around Cormorant lake north and Finch pond, plus the usual plethora of Canada geese and small flotilla of Tufted duck.

Now onto the Skylarks. I have heard a lot more Skylarks around Manor farm this year than I did last.  And least years I made a particular effort to listen out for them. This year there is a cacophony of Skylark trill, and I see them flitting about all over the place; not just the grasslands or Chandlers farm. I wonder if they had a successful year last year.

I also noticed, for me at least, more Mute swans around Manor farm.  Three yearlings seem to fly around together a lot. They were complemented by three adults, this morning.

There was a small flock of equally small birds that took off from the land mass near the copse. I was hoofing back to my car at the time, so it too me a while to get my camera up.  By this time the flock had flown some considerable distance. I gave it a shot or three, but wasn't too hopeful as I was trying to pick out small, fast moving birds against a busy background, where the birds themselves were pretty much the same colour as the background. Plus, as you can see from the photos this week, light conditions were pretty poor.

Anyway, getting home and cropping their fuzzy images, and consulting the RSPB pocket bird book, there is a small possibility that I saw a flock of Hawfinch.  Now don't get too excited. Remember, my bird spotting skills are second to bottom.  Have a look at the images and decide for yourself.  I thought they might have been Goldfinches, but the yellow wing flashes are absent.

I can't really call these posting mid-week specials any more seeing as here is another one so soon after the last.

The weather made amends this Wednesday: glorious sunshine and warmth! Shame it is going to end tomorrow.  Cloud and rain is forecast for my Saturday stomp.

I popped down to the nascent reserve slightly earlier than usual, this morning.  Chandlers farm was very quiet. It seemed totally deserted; possibly the guys had knocked off for a mid morning tea break.

There was a trickle of water from the out flow from the sediment settlement ponds, and the pump was quiet when I got to the Bailey bridge.  It must have been running at some point for the trickle of water into the Blackwater. I think I have an unhealthy obsession with this pump.

I could see lots of activity on Manor farm as I walked along the footpath from the Moor Green Lakes car park. At first I thought it was on the north end of the latest infill - Inert having considered the ground consolidated enough to take lorry traffic.

By the time I got to the Bailey bridge it was evident activity was concentrated around the north and east shores of the Land mass; continuing on from last week.  This is the area where large flocks (100+) of Lapwing tend to hang out.  I haven't seen them there recently.

The southern track was in use (as I surmised on Saturday) whilst the northern track along which the lorries had that long reversing to do, was blocked off near the Bailey bridge.  A bit ironic, as the deep lorry ruts leading from the Bailey bridge to the pump had been filled with some nice ballast to firm it up.  However, I suspect the lorries once again utilise this track in the near future.

Inert seem to now be concentrating on the north and east shores of the land mass aka the infill done a couple of years back. The land here is well consolidated and able to take lorry traffic- also the bulldozer driver had built a nice track for them. He was all over the place during the short time I was there. One minute down at the south of the infill, the next back up to the north end of the land mass; getting out of his cab to direct lorry traffic - seeing as he knows where he wants to work next.

It is possible that they had also added to the infill on the east shore of Cormorant lake. There were signs that further work has taken place.

Lorry numbers seemed a bit down on last week. At least three John Stacey tippers, and one each of Taurus and Inert. However, I did say it might have been tea break time.

There are an awful lot of people hoping this restoration will be finished soon. There are an equally large number of people perplexed as to what it going on - even local councillors are in the dark.  The latter is a bit surprising as most of the details are either in my blog or on the Hampshire county council planning web pages.  The fine detail may not be totally accurate, but the overall plan is. I do keep explaining to people I bump into as to what is going on.

The charge on my bridge camera's battery ran out. Luckily I was almost finished. However, I did have to switch to my DSLR. Unfortunately, even at its widest (150mm) it is a bit too much of a zoom for scenic shots.  Therefore the slide show is a bit of a mish-mash.

Wildlife wasn't totally absent from Cormorant lake - just rather sparse this morning.  Manor lake south fared much better, whilst Moor Green Lakes was heaving. Manor farm should be superb, once restoration is completed.

Anyway, some photos from this morning's jaunt - the best of which are the Great Crested Grebe having caught a fish. Also, where the Lapwing have gone may have been answered; though it must be said that the Lapwing do tend to pop over to Fleet Hill farm.

Bright and sunny, the weatherman said.  Wall to wall sunshine, was the claim. Our fickle British weather had other ideas: Fog. It was there, at 6:30am, obscuring the view from our back garden.  After a couple of mugs of coffee and a bit of breckie, I decided to chance nipping down to Manor farm. Sometimes it can be foggy at Finchampstead yet down in the valley, Manor farm would be basking in sun. Not today, unfortunately. However, it was more misty than foggy on Manor farm. I could see a darn sight further than I could at home.

Both cameras coped admirably considering the conditions. However, I have had to do a little image processing in FastStone on all the photographs.

Kicking off this week's scintillating instalment, the pump was quiet. This seems to be a regular occurrance. Working during the week and silent on weekends. Not sure why.

Inert appear to have been flitting about the south side of Manor farm this week.  Their main thrust, as revealed by my Wednesday jaunt, has been the continuing infill of Cormorant lake. The main 'middle' part has been flattened, so it no longer looks like a battlefield, and I feel it has edged northward a little.

The east side of the infill, nearest the pump, appears to have had the south shore pushed further north. The old shoreline of Cormorant lake (south) has virtually disappeared.

A lot of the latest infill seems quite well consolidated to my inexperienced wellies. Other parts, however, particularly the western side of infill are definitely boggy; more so as you get closer to the water's edge. I found it hard going over the soft, slippery mud, even when following the bulldozer tracks. It would not be safe for lorries to drive over this stuff.

Whilst freshly bulldozed soil can be very soft, as I know to my cost, I think some of this bogginess can be attributable to the type of inert material laid about a month ago. Granted we had a heck of a lot of snow and then rain, but it has been quite dry, for a while, and there is a definite different feel to both types of spoil.

The bulldozer has crushed and squished some of the mud into dirty great grey lumps of the stuff, with the consistency of quicksand. It looks like and feels like fine porridge; say Ready Brek. I avoid this stuff like the plague. It has a menacing look about it, and I'm sure it smirks at me.

As I mentioned earlier, Inert have been flitting about the site. The mound of spoil dumped near the copse has now been bulldozed into the ground. I'm not sure what it did, but the bulldozer appears to have operated all the way to the sewage works and then around the old site of the yellow bridge and next to the mighty mound produced by the boulder sorter outer.

However, some of the tracks I see do not look like they belong to our bulldozer. They appear more like earth moving lorry tracks. Shame I didn't see what it was.

The bulldozer has also created a track heading out north west parallel to the west shore of Cormorant lake, across the old infill I have been calling the land mass.  It's a curious thing, not least because it bifurcates at its northern extent. I am not sure what it is for, unless it is to allow lorries to trundle down to drop their loads further along Cormorant lake.  It felt reasonably firm under foot, so long as you stayed on it.

I've seen Inert do this before; create a track for no obvious reason. However, as I visit the site once or twice a week, I never do see what is going on, really. Instead have to infer what has happened via circumstantial evidence.

I almost didn't take my DSLR with me this morning. It was rather foggy and the wildlife have been missing of late.  In one sense I was glad I did take it with me, in another I wasn't. The low light conditions produced very grainy photos. In that respect I was surprised how well my bridge camera did. Though I only use the bridge camera for wide angle shots.

There was a large flock of Egyptian geese lurking in Cormorant lake (south). I haven't seen such large numbers for some time now. I did notice (well, hear) large numbers of Canada geese around; and did spy some in what little remains of Finch pond.

The usual assortment of Mallards and Tufted duck adorned the area, and I could hear the Teal we have had of late.

Nesting has started, as my photos of a Grey Heron carrying a twig can testify.

My greatest pleasure, and grief, was photographing Skylarks. Pleasure, because after hearing them for months now five (yes five!) of them had an aerial display over the land mass, quite close to me. They were wheeling and diving and climbing about all over the place; before descending to the ground. Grief, because the light conditions were so bad, even though they had improved considerably by 8:15 am.

I'm not sure if the Skylarks will nest on the land mass. They usually do so in the grass fields to the north of Manor lake and also to the western edge of Chandlers farm.  I hear them all the time. The land mass does, however, attract huge flocks of Lapwing and various geese.

Anyway, on with the grainy photos. One day, perhaps, I will get a clear shot of the Skylarks. Trying to pick out a small dot on a large expanse of sky it quite challenging.

There was a noticeable increase in lorry traffic on Manor farm, which appeared above what I witnessed on my Wednesday stomp last week. I've mentioned before that it is difficult to gauge exactly how many trucks there are. The blighters keep moving.  Short of standing still for a long time and noting license plate numbers, which I have no intention of doing, I have to make an educated guess.

This week events conspired to allow me to get a better figure for the number of lorries. A load of John Stacey tipper trucks formed a nice, if somewhat rowdy, queue stretching from the works (aka Bailey) bridge to the pump station. It seemed that one of their compatriots was taking rather a long time to dump his load; possibly talking to the bulldozer driver.

Anyway, the queuing drivers showed their displeasure by leaning on their horns; quite a mighty ruckus.  It sounded like the ogres in the last Shrek movie, where the ogres held their noses and pushed air out of their ears to produce a sound like blaring horns.

This ruckus did enable me to get a more accurate count of tipper lorries. There were at least eight John Stacey tippers, one Taurus tipper and one Inert grab loader. Quite the busiest I've seen it for sometime. Not to say that it hasn't been as busy of late.  Afterall, I'm not down at the site every day, and it is difficult to assess their numbers while they keep moving.

Matters should improve once the infill is firm enough for the lorries to reverse directly onto it.  There will be none of this reversing about 75 yards business. It should also help increase the pace of infill, as the bulldozer driver also does not have to reverse a long distance.

I did notice that the drivers negotiated the track between the pump station and works bridge quite gingerly. It is deeply rutted and possibly slippy.  Seems to me some hefty ballast needs to be worked into the track.  The bulldozer also seemed to find the mud heavy going. I'm sure I saw the tracks slipping a bit.

Our on off pump was on again. Should be interesting to see if it is still chugging away on Saturday.

I noticed a Grey Wagtail on the Blackwater for the past couple of weeks or so.  It would not stay still long enough for me to photograph it.  One Wednesday it did.

It landed on the Bailey bridge, not more than 15 or 20 yards from me, and stayed for a minute or two allowing me to photograph it. At one point a lorry drove over the bridge, causing it to fly off, but it was back almost instantly the lorry had passed.  A little later I managed to photograph what I believe was another Grey Wagtail, hunting on a branch in the Blackwater. I think they were a mating pair.

I also spied two Little Grebes on Manor lake (south), quietly going about their business and totally ignoring the traffic mayhem taking place a few yards from them.  Again, I fell they were a breeding pair.

Wednesday was gloriously sunny, if a touch nippy. Two further days of perfect photography conditions and then Saturday rolled in: Dark, dank, heavy, low brooding clouds, with an annoying hazy mist. Hey ho, at least it wasn't cold. At 7.5 degrees centigrade, when I set off on my morning stomp, it was positively balmy and my fingers did freeze.

My Wednesday stomp started off with a mighty traffic jam of John Stacey tipper lorries waiting to drop their loads at the new infill site. It seemed to mark an up tick in activity. I counted at least three John Stacey tipper trucks and one Inert grab loader. I'm not sure how long this increase in lorry traffic will last.

The lorries still do not drive on to the infill. It was very squidgy last week.  However, this week it seemed a lot firmer; certainly when I walked on it.  Probably helped by not having an incessant deluge, on top of snow melt.  The Blackwater was considerably lower, as a result.

The upshot of not being able to drive onto the infill, and the continuing muddiness of the site (trust me, there is still a lot of mud around the consistency of quicksand) means the lorries have to off load on their track. Consequently, the bulldozer driver has a long way to back up to the dropped loads, and a long return shunt to push soil into the lake.

I would expect the ground to firm up, over the coming days or weeks, sufficiently for lorries to drive on to the infill and get closer the shoreline. However, matters in the firming up department and safety department for plant are not helped by the intermittent pump.  It was chugging away on Wednesday, but quite silent this morning. Water levels were lower than last week, but possibly a little too high for lorries to get too close to the shoreline.

What I found interesting were the deep bulldozer tracks, created this week. Some were over a foot (30cm) deep, with two foot banking in places. This might indicate how squidgy the area was whilst the bulldozer was pushing spoil into Cormorant lake.

I must say the infill resembled a lunar landscape or pictures I've seen of the Somme. There were deep gouges and heaps of spoil. I almost wonder if the bulldozer packed up, and infill continued with a digger. Normally, the bulldozer creates a fairly flat surface.

There is a possibility that the new south shoreline of Manor lake has started to be produced. You'll see in some of the photos a very distinct terrace has been cut quite close to the south footpath. Its position, as best I can tell, is approximately where I'd expect to see it; though it isn't as wobbly as I would have thought.  Also, the whole area between the terrace edge and the old shoreline of Cormorant lake, which used to be vehicle tracks, has now been bulldozed.  However, we have seen this before.  Terraces are cut, and then filled; also areas are filled in and then scoured out.  I surmise that the latter is what we are seeing here, infill being built up and then dug out to produce the final finish level.

Which brings me to a large pile of spoil dumped just west of the south end of the copse. Does this mean that Inert will once again switch what they are doing? Will they flit over to work on finishing Finch pond? Time will tell, as they say, but it did look as if Inert were cutting another crater. This feature was to one side of the spoil.

Water was flowing from Manor lake (south) into Cormorant lake near the pump station. I'm not sure if Inert had cut through the soil bridge the formed last week or if the water worked its way through naturally.  I may take a look next week.

I could hear and see the usual plethora of activity on Chandlers farm on Wednesday.  Surprisingly, I heard what appeared to be activity on Saturday. I didn't bother crossing the works bridge to have a look see; especially if there was plant moving around.  I stuck to the vacant Manor farm part of the site.

I've reworked my progress map a little; adding some landmarks to aid you figure what I am describing. I also moved the inlet to the original drainage ditch that was dug last week. I had it too far to the north. Ironically, the inlet has been filled in.  I might have been slightly enthusiastic about the extent of the eastern edge of the infill.

On to the slide show. Once again virtually all the photos taken on Saturday had to be processed in FastStone to brighten them up.

Wildlife was decidedly absent on both my stomps. I can't say this is particularly unusual for this time of year. Although there is a lot of activity going on, the wildfowl seem fairly tolerant when Finch pond was being filled in.  In fact, they seemed to positively relish the new environments being created.

To give an idea of the wildlife you can expect to see, I now include some photos I took on my Wednesday stomp from Manor farm and Moor Green lakes.  I post them here as I continue my battle with that heinous organisation, Facebook, who now demand you input a mobile phone number to verify yourself.

Not bloody likely, matey. Partly as I don't have a mobile phone, but mainly as if I could be bothered to get one FB is not getting its number so as to bombard me with adverts; despite what they say.

When I visited Manor farm on Wednesday, I noticed that a long pile of soil heaps stretching roughly halfway up the east shore of Cormorant lake south. I did wonder, at the time, could have got access to this part of the reserve. For one, they would have to cross a drainage ditch between Cormorant lake (south) and Manor lake (south).

My Saturday visit showed that the line of soil heaps extended almost three quarters of the way along the east shore of Cormorant lake (south).

When I walked (very, very carefully) onto the latest infill I noticed that Inert had created a land bridge to block off the thin section of lake leading to the pump station. Ah ha, I thought, I can now walk from the south shore of Cormorant lake (south) onto the 'mud flats', and thence onto the North embankment via Hawthorn lake.

Nope. It transpires that the long line of soil heaps marks out the course of a new ditch that had been cut during the week by a digger.  This sort of indicates how much infill Inert hope to achieve over the next few weeks or months; breeding season not withstanding. The upshot of this new ditch is that I still have to walk around the pump station to get the mud flats from the south shore of Cormorant lake.

No, I did not propose leaping over the ditch. Although the width of water in the ditch was about 2' (60cm) wide in places, it was at the bottom of deep steep banks, which would be full of extremely soft, gooey mud considering the colossal amount of rain we have received; on top of snow melt! The amount of surface water meant I didn't want to go round to Hawthorn lake as I know I would have to cross some deep streams to get to the north embankment.

Our stirling pump was silent again. No idea why. Perhaps the leaky pipe, lack of diesel or it's knacked again. Surprisingly, water levels are comparatively low, even though they are rising fast. This could make infill tricky.  The Blackwater was running high, with all the rain and melt water. I'm not sure if its burst its banks. I didn't wander down to Moor Green Lakes.  Though in hind sight, I should have popped over to Fleet Hill farm to check the flooding there.

I quickly discovered the route taken by the digger, to get to the west edge of Cormorant lake (south) when I went around the pump station. The ditch between Cormorant lake (south) and Manor lake (south) had been partially filled in. This happens quite frequently, I've noticed over the years. When you stand on the land bridge you are struck by how much lower water levels in Cormorant lake (south) are when compared to Manor lake (south); it is some 4'-6' (1.2m - 1.8m) difference - with the latter lake being much higher.

Other than a great deal of infill taking place, I haven't really noticed anything else happening on Manor farm.  Chanlders farm was very busy on Wednesday.

Parts of the fencing bordering the south footpath of Manor farm have fallen down. One suspects that Cemex will fix these when the south footpath is converted into a bridlepath. Not that the footpath designation appears to have prevented at least one stupid horse rider to use this path.

We'll kick off the graphics part with my feeble attempt to show the extent of infill on Cormorant lake (south) - the orange bits - and the course of the new ditch. Though I think the ditch was extended between Wednesday and Saturday.

Now onto the galley proper. Light conditions were, as usual, quite bad. Exasperatingly so. Just as I had stomped to the main area for photography, a whole load of cloud arrived to obscure the sun. What little sunlight did get through, was feeble.  A large majority of the photos have been lightened in FastStone.

This can be a quiet time of year for wildlife. Matters are probably not helped with the restoration work. However, far better it progresses quickly so that the reserve can become as such.

Last year I photographed large flotillas of Tufted duck sailing around Finch pond and Cormorant lake (south). This year their numbers are much diminished, but their place have been taken by Teal.

On Wednesday, I photographed a Herring gull on the scrape. It didn't look too well. In fact it looked dead. This morning, its deceased state was confirmed. All was not bad news. The bird's carcass attracted that scavenger the Red Kite. A couple flew around me, sometimes passing within 15 or 20 feet of me. Tragically, the light just wasn't good enough to get a really good photo.

No weekend site visit.

I toyed with the idea of visiting the nascent reserve during Friday to photograph the place in snow, but decided to hold off until Saturday. The snow was slushy, which I didn't want in my camera and lens. Also it was expected to be sunny and I would get better shots.

This plan was scuppered, partly as it continued snowing throughout Friday afternoon and into early Saturday morning, which in turn saw my car refusing to go up a small incline (despite having just gone up a very steep incline) when I picked up my daughter at 19:00 on Friday evening. Having crashed at her house, I spent a merry half hour early Saturday morning cutting a path through the slushy, compacted snow on the road; which shouldn't have been there had the snow stopped at 13:00, when the Met office said it would.

Oddly, the snow where we live had virtually disappeared when I set off to pick up my daughter at 19:00, but four miles away it was seven inches deep.  I saw lots of accidents on my journey. The most major was a cohort of police cars at Finchampstead memorial, dealing with a crash and closing off the road.

With temperatures hovering around -8 degrees centigrade this morning (Sunday), I declined to get out of my nice warm bed and shoot down to the reserve at 7:00 am.

Enough of my harping on about a little cold snap. My visit to Manor farm on Wednesday revealed continued infill of Cormorant lake (south).  Activity appears still to be fairly sedate, with a small handful of lorries; though it is difficult to count them all as they keep moving around. :-) :-) :-0

The pump was chugging away, but appears to have a small leak in its outflow pipe. The jet of water fell onto a nearby sapling, instantly freezing and making it look all pretty.

Activity continues unabated on Chandlers farm; which seems mainly to consist of Inert's favourite pastime of building large piles of soil.

With kinder, albeit it wetter, weather arriving tomorrow I expect normal service to resume.

It's been rather chilling, this past week. Sudden Stratospheric Warming has struck again, but not as quickly as last March. Just the usual stuff for this time of year.

Our wayward pump was chugging away on Wednesday, when I stomped around Moor Green Lakes and Manor Farm. On Saturday morning, it was quite silent.  Knackered or run out of diesel. Who knows. Lakes levels are beginning to creep up.

Chandlers farm was a hive of activity.  It seems never ending on this part of the nascent reserve and sports ground. At least two diggers and one bulldozer were doing their stuff; which largely appears to be building up huge piles of spoil, digging them out, only to build them up again.

On to Manor farm. Work has resumed on the infill of Cormorant lake (south) and thence, presumably, landscaping it with Manor lake (south). A fair amount of infill has taken place over this past week, and I noticed quite a few tipper lorries and grab loaders bringing inert waste to keep our bulldozer driver busy.

Curiously, the infill curves nicely around the feature I have been calling: Cormorant island, Cormorant spit and, latterly, the scrape. When I first visited Manor farm, Cormorants appeared to be the only birds which inhabited a piece of land that was exposed in middle of a large lake sandwiched between Finch pond and Manor lake (south). I christened them Cormorant island and Cormorant lake respectively. I then discovered that Cormorant lake had a little 'lake' to the north of it; hence north and south.

When water levels dropped, Cormorant island grew a long tail which reached the south shore of Cormorant lake. Thus it became a spit, though technically it is either a causeway or sandbar.  Early last year, Inert dump a whole load of gravel onto Cormorant island, forming what I thought would be a scrape.  Time will tell what this whole area will look like, but a scrape is damn useful to have in any water feature created here.

Well, judging by the length of time it took to infill Finch pond, I don't think Inert will make sufficient progress with Cormorant lake before having to call a halt to works due to the breeding season. I could be proved wrong, as they have done a cracking amount this past week.

Thing is, I am not too sure I know where the protected birds were breeding last year.  The scrape is a possibility, though my suspicion is the gravel spit separating Cormorant lakes north and south.  There are Snipe and others on the mudflats i.e. the bit between Manor lake and Cormorant lake. I do not think those are protected.

Only time will tell, as they say.

I was quite annoyed, this morning. Light conditions were pretty bad, and a Kestrel hovered very close to me. I also got some fantastic shots of Canada geese flying towards me. I had clambered up the huge spoil heap, near the yellow bridge, but taking the more gentle sloping east face. A small flock of Canada geese came flying down the south shore of Cormorant lake, at approximately the same height as the spoil heap. Only the light wasn't fantastic. Sigh.

The orange area, in the map below, is my attempt at mapping the infill so far on Cormorant lake. The purple hatched area is Finch pond infill.

Male Scaup.  Until last week, I was blissfully unaware of the existence of this species of bird.  I got talking to a couple of birders who had journeyed to Manor farm to see this bird.

My first problem in identifying this bird was its spelling. You see, its pronunciation sounds like Scorp. Looking at its entry in my trusty RSPB guide, I discover it is closely related to Tufted ducks. I have photographed many, many, many Tufted ducks as they swam in large armadas around Finch pond and Cormorant lake.

What, I thought, if there were Scaups lurking in the armadas. A quick flick through last weeks' photo, taken in very bad light, revealed this.  Unfortunately it was far across Cormorant lake, and I have had to employ some major cropping to reveal the blighter.

There I was, thinking this rare visitor was nowt but a Tufted duck. I'll take a closer look through some of my other photos to see if I have a better shot.

I always find it ironic that in my ignorance I have seen and photographed all sorts of 'rare' birds that some people travel large distances to catch a glimpse of.

Now, some other wildlife photos. If only the light had been better. The cropped Kestrel photos have been lightened.  I have a whole load of Kestrel photos from this morning, let down by bad light. Sigh.

Light conditions were too bad for decent photos of other birds e.g. Teal, Egyptian geese, etc lurking on the far side of the scrape in Cormorant lake (south).

What a busy week has transpired.  My mid-week foray, in somewhat gloomy but mildish conditions, had a man continuing to weld the Bailey bridge.  The pristine condition of the bridge (aka not muddy) suggested no lorry or bulldozer traffic had crossed it since last week. This translates into no further progress on Manor farm...well, not quite. More later.

Our stalwart pump was not. It was quite silent. Obviously the leaky pipe or obstruction in said pipe has not been rectified. Water levels were still surprisingly low.

I noticed a white van on Fleet Hill farm near the southern Longwater road entrance. Along this part of Fleet Hill farm, many of the green tubes protecting saplings from being eaten were lying on their sides. These, I surmised, contained dead saplings, those succumbing to the long hot summer of 2018.

It was interesting to see the distribution of the dead saplings. I wonder to what extent deaths were attributable by species, strength of sapling when planted, availability of water or all of above.  In any case, when I returned on Friday (taking advantage of some rare sunshine to further try out my new lens) I noticed many of the tubes were now upright. No doubt containing a nice, shiny new sapling. A white van was still on Fleet Hill farm, and I suspect will be there next week to continue replacing dead saplings with live ones.  I'm not sure how they tell which species had died. Most, when I peered down the green tubes, resembled twigs  - albeit dead.

My Friday, sunny visit, revealed a very muddy works (aka Bailey) bridge with a reasonable fleet of tipper trucks, busily at work transporting inert material from Chandlers farm to Manor farm. the bridge had been full welded and pronounced safe.

One of the bulldozers was busily at work on the south shore of Finch pond, building up soil levels once again.

There was some encroachment of bulldozing closer towards the south footpath, on an area that had already been filled in.  There was evidence of work on the north shore of Finch pond with (guess what) the soil being gouged out and pushed southward; leaving a gentle long slope.

I reckon this will continue next week, with the land levels being raised further.  At some point the infill must stop, if only to leave some semblance of a pond.

There was a great deal of activity on Chandlers farm.  One, particularly large, hill of spoil was being dug out and loaded on to lorries - I think for transferring to Manor farm, but I am not sure. Diggers, lorries and bulldozers were trundling all over Chandlers farm.

I'm still concerned work has stopped on Cormorant lake.  The breeding season is fast approaching, and calls will be made to halt any restoration activity - unless, that is, the birds will be able to breed on the new, pristine but tiny Finch pond.

I've had to post process the photos as the weather on most of the days was cloudy and manky. Also I have been using bridge cameras for wide angle shots.  My Sigma, with its lowest 150mm is not brillient for landscape photos.  I started off using an old Canon bridge camera, but it has been through the wars and now takes slightly out of focus photos. On Saturday, I switched to an old Lumix. It has the advantage of having a view finder. I can't stand using an LCD screen on the back of cameras. Too much reflection and difficult to compose the shot.

No site visit this Saturday morning, for reasons you'll see, but two site visits this past week.

I do find the strategy of restoring Finch pond a little odd. The breeding season will kick off with a vengeance in approximately two months time - say three at the utmost. Cemex/Inert will then be put under immense pressure to cease all work around what I have been calling Cormorant lake.

Unless the resulting two to three month hiatus has been built into the restoration plan, I would have thought it makes sense to crack on with infilling Cormorant lake (north) as a priority, with infill/landscaping Cormorant lake (south) and Manor lake close second before the birds start breeding.  Unless, of course, the plans for this part of the nascent reserve have changed, and there is a whole lot less infilling and landscaping.

Now back to our normal schedule.  My site visit, last Sunday, to test my new Sigma lens, revealed the bulldozer parked by the Yellow bridge, primed ready to continue restoring Manor farm. My Wednesday morning visit revealed an empty, quiet site, devoid of bulldozer, lorries or signs of much being done on Monday or Tuesday.

A lot may have been done, but as I have commented before, one patch of muddy soil tends to look the same from week to week unless something dramatic has changed.

As I approached the works (aka Bailey) bridge, I spied some poor sod (complete with large bowser) power washing it - the air temperature was about four degrees centigrade, and it felt bitterly cold in the north easterly wind. He stopped for a brief rest, and I commented that he had a soulless job as the bridge would get muddy the instant lorries began rolling.

He then explained the reason: welding had to be checked, particularly the bridge deck plates.  The bridge had been taking a bit of a pasting over the years; especially of late with the numerous lorries crossing it, heavily laden with soil and spoil.

My site visit on Friday (to take advantage of the, rare, sunny day to try out my new lens) revealed a welder hard at work on the bridge.  Naturally, whilst this was going on there was no traffic allowed on the bridge, and no work took place on Manor farm - certainly since Wednesday if not Tuesday.

Chandlers farm, however, was a hive of activity.

My Friday visit also revealed a problem with the pump. I heard a strange gurgling noise whilst I was stood next to the works bridge. It came and went, quite regularly in approximately 30 second intervals. At first I thought it was some strange animal ritual.

I tracked rapidly the strange noise down to the pump. It was behaving like Old Faithful. Firstly it appeared to pump water normally, indeed there was a healthy flow of water on the outflows into the Blackwater.  Then a fine spray would emerge from the inlet pipe.  This fine spray rapidly turned into a coarse spray, before erupting into a fine jet of water, much like a geyser.  The whole process was then repeated.

As I was walking east, back towards the MGLG car park, I noticed a man wander down to the pump, time his walk to the rear of the pump mechanism to avoid the spray, before turning off the pump.  I cannot fathom what is wrong with the pump (possibly a blockage) to explain its odd behaviour.

Shame really, as water levels in Cormorant lake (south) had fallen dramatically over the past week.  If the pump is out of action for weeks, it could further delay restoration.

Otherwise, restoration efforts appear concentrated on the south/south west shore of Finch pond. land levels appear, once again, to be being built up. I wonder if this will follow the normal pattern, and the whole lot will be scoured out again.

I 'might' possibly take a wander over Manor farm on Sunday (tomorrow) prior to attending the Moor Green Lakes work party, where we shall be hedge laying on the footpath between the car park and the Blackwater.

No Saturday visit this week, but two mid week visits as compensation. The memsahib and I had a very busy period over new year, shuttling visiting friends around London, and a bit of mass catering by yours truly. Add a soupçon of cold; lack of sleep; manky, cloudy overcast and freezing cold morning, meant I elected to stay in bed this morning in an attempt to recover.

I must admit that the main reason for my site visits, this week, was to get to grips with my new lens. A Sigma 150-600mm Contemporary canon fit.  I've been watching this lens drop in price over a couple of years, and finally took the plunge to buy one just after Christmas.  Sigma were offering £100 off.  I could get a brand new lens at a price my bank balance could just manage, but was now cheaper or the same price as a used lens!!!

A truly mighty beast it is when compared to my Tamron 16-300mm jobbie.  The lens has a diameter of 95mm; some 30mm greater than the Tamron. This lets in a much greater amount of light. I believe the glass itself is of a higher quality, which translates to better imagery.  Of course, the main reason for getting this lens is the doubling of telephoto I have available: 600mm vs 300mm.

There are a couple of downsides. Wide angle is now a minimum of 150mm. That is not enough for landscape shots of Manor farm.  The Tamron's 16mm wide angle offered fantastic landscape shots.

I will now have to carry two cameras with me - which was a strategy I had decided on some time ago when I considered the Sigma. Thus, I shall use my ancient Canon SX700 HS bridge camera for landscape shots, as it is small and light.

The Sigma is also over 1kg heavier than the Tamron.  It is quite noticeable. I believe the all up weight of camera and lens is now well over 3kg.  Good thing I eschewed the Sigma Sport model. This waterproofed beastie with a 105mm lens is roughly 1kg heavier than the Sigma Contemporary.

Unlike the Tamron, it takes me two turns of the lens ring to get to full zoom. I've worked out a strategy of either extending the lens to, say, 400mm whilst framing my subject then zooming in to 600mm with one twist or to twist the camera with my right hand whilst twisting the lens ring with my left.

A final problem, which I will get used to: Tamron lenses following Nikon's direction turning the lens ring whilst Sigma follow Canon's opposite direction for turning lens rings.  Great. I've spent a year being used to turning the Tamron.

Enough harping! The Sigma lens is SPECTACULAR even at 600mm!  It's clarity is astonishing, with huge amounts of light being let it. Shots taken at 600mm are not soft; whereas with my Tamron shots taken at or near 300mm were very soft.  Auto focus works well, plus it locks onto a target (subject) far better than the Tamron.

Anyway, enough of lenses, which I am sure is boring the living daylights out of people. What were Inert up to this week?

My Wednesday visit revealed very little. They were not operating on Manor farm.  There was activity on Chandlers farm, but it looked light and subdued. I had got down quite late in the morning, roughly 11:00am so would have avoided any tea break. I guess there were still people off on holiday.  I could have wandered around Manor farm on Wednesday. The gates were firmly shut to works traffic over the Bailey bridge, which meant Inert were staying firmly on Chandlers farm.  However, I had to get home before 12:00, it was a cloudy day and there was little wildlife around.

Friday saw Inert back on Manor farm. Our hard working bulldozer driver was chunkering away on the former south and south west shores of Finch pond!  Yep, Inert are flitting about again.  I can sort of understand this. Water levels in Cormorant lake were very high due, in part, to the pump being off. Thus it will be quite dangerous for heavy plant to be operating next to deep (up to 10m) water.

There were a couple of tipper lorries delivering spoil to the bulldozer, but the whole effort looked a little subdued. I guess this will change next week when all and sundry are back at work.

With little obvious change, you can understand my reluctance to visit Manor farm on a cold, manky Saturday morning.

I've split the slide show into two: one for Wednesday and one for Friday.  Most all of wildlife, they really represent me getting to grips with my new lens.

Kicking off with an overcast Wednesday. All shots are handheld i.e. I did not use a tripod or deploy my monopod.

Moving on to a freezing cold but sunny Friday. All shots are handheld i.e. I did not use a tripod or deploy my monopod.

Finally, a little extra.  Cast your mind back a year, when I attempted to make a Black Forest Gateau. Whilst delicious, it did resemble a collapsed caldera or Quatermass experiment. I christened it Cratermass.

I discovered why the sponge collapsed: too much baking powder.  This year I showed restrain, and the results (yes, I cooked two of them) did not collapse. My first, pictured below followed a recipe without butter. This resulted in an extremely light, airy sponge which was very delicate and tore when I spread jam or whipped cream over it.

The second followed a different recipe with butter. This resulted in a more robust sponge, which withstood a lot of abuse from me.  However, I prefer the first sponge as is it is more like what a Black Forest Gateau should be.

Both were polished off.

Note, the funny shape of the cake was due to me not having two 8" round baking dishes. Instead, I baked the cakes in a large casserole dish. It worked perfectly. Always the one for lateral thinking, and pushing the boundary.

I did not visit the nascent reserve this week. Judging by lack of activity on various construction projects in and around the area, I reckoned that Inert and Cemex had shut up shop for Christmas.

I may visit the site after the New Year (if only to try out my Christmas pressie to myself - a decent piece of glass for my camera bought in the 'sales' - actually voucher by sigma), but I doubt any further restoration will take place until Monday 7th Jan.

In the meantime, I wish you a brave New Year.

I fully expect all restoration efforts to cease for a minimum of a week if not two as various construction and quarry staff take a well earned rest. Most builders tend to shove off for a couple of weeks over Christmas. However, we are in the age of working all hours given to us in pursuit of the mighty dollar or, in some cases, stupid deadlines dreamt up by some numptie in management.

Restoration efforts appear now to be centred on the south shore of Cormorant lake.  Only one bulldozer was in evidence, on my Wednesday stomp, chugging up and down the shoreline of Cormorant lake. Various tipper and grab loader lorries were delivering inert waste. Part of the banking that used to run the length of the south shore of Cormorant lake (south), built for traffic control (i.e. stopping plant from driving into said lake), has now been bulldozed away into the lake.

It must now be fairly dangerous. The pump has stopped, which means water levels are high. Recent (and continuing) heavy rains has turned the whole area into a quagmire. To the point where I refuse to walk on certain parts (e.g. area west of copse, latest infill into Cormorant lake) as the quicksand like mud was so deep. All vehicles were driving very carefully.

Even my normal trick of keeping to the bulldozer tracks doesn't always work well. The new bulldozer has wider tracks, which means its surface pressure is much less, resulting in less soil compaction than its predecessor. Where possible, I follow the lorry tracks as they compact the ground more.

I am a little perplexed (who isn't) with the latest infill. Plans seem to indicate that the south shoreline of the new combined Cormorant/Manor lake will pass quite close to the south footpath. Perhaps even closer than now, offering superb viewing of wildfowl; provided a whole load of trees aren't planted to obsure the scenery.

However, the infill seems to be pushing the south shore further north.  Now, this might simply be due to the way Inert work. They seem to build up the infill, then bulldoze it down, before building up again, only to then dig it out to the final contours.  Time will tell, but it does seem a shame to fill in such a nice, well used deep, large lake which already works well to attract all forms of wildlife, as well as keeping viewers happy.

I can't tell if more work was done on Finch pond just north of the copse. As I've commented before, one muddy patch of infill can look pretty much the same from week to week. One trick I have of establishing if work has been done or not is to see if my tracks, from the previous week's walk, are still visible.  It's not foolproof, but if they have disappeared then there is a fair chance the bulldozer erased them

I clambered to the top of the pile of sorted spoil to take a 360 of the area. I am not sure why I never thought of doing this before - perhaps due to me keeping clear of the area during the breeding season.  Anyway, after checking that the heap was well consolidated, I clambered to the top of it. What a mighty view it was.  I always maintain that some raised viewing platforms should be built on nature reserves.  It gives a completely different perspective.

Wildfowl, not surprisingly, were a little sparse on Cormorant lake. I think the Teal, which flew in a week or so ago, were still there in large numbers. I say I think, as my bird recognition skills are not that good, and Saturday was too manky a morning to be taking good photos to aid in recognition.

I've done a new progress map to now take in Cormorant lake. It gives an idea of how much work there is still to go. Only a year lads. No pressure.

I've marked out, to the best of my dodgy estimating ability, the amount that Finch pond (purple) and now Cormorant lake have been filled in. As I've used the latest google earth image, you will notice that it shows bits of Finch pond already filled in.  Also the area I have been calling 'the land mass' is infill.

No on site photos until tomorrow: Sunday. This morning it was overcast, dark, very cold, breezy and (the killer) sleeting. I decided against a site visit.

I did my usual Wednesday morning visit, when conditions were more benign.

Alas dear reader, I did it again. Sank up to my knees in mud while attempting to cross the causeway to the copse. I easily stepped over the small trickle of a stream in the middle of the causeway, straight into deep, gooey mud the consistency of quicksand. It was a bit of a struggle to haul myself out of the mud - not as bad as when I first did this some months ago. The mud didn't go as far up my knees.

I should have known better, but I noticed that some Roe deer had crossed the causeway. Their hooves did not appear to sink into the mud very much. Therefore I thought it was a lot firmer than it was.

Inert now appear to have switched their attention to the infilling Finch pond just north of the copse, and to landscaping and infilling the south shore of Cormorant lake. Tipper lorries were dumping their loads near the north west of the copse.  Interestingly, they were also dumping spoil near the yellow bridge.

Infilling of Finch pond appears to have now reached the first set of small 'islands' just north of the copse. I reckon (ha! famous last words) that Inert are doing their usual trick of building a causeway then infilling any resulting enclosed areas.

Our busy bulldozer was working away on the south shore of Cormorant lake, trimming the banking along its entire length, and landscaping a stretch from the middle to the west shore of the lake; levelling it and pushing soil into the lake.  On the immediate south west corner of Cormorant lake, the bulldozer continued last week's effort of extending the infill eastward.

There were two bulldozers on site during my Wednesday visit, only one working though. By Sunday, i could only see one. Though this was also the case last week.

There seems to be a big push on to complete this restoration. I remember work stopped on Manor farm round about November 2017 and didn't recommence until about April or May of this year. So far, Inert having been plugging away at Manor farm.  Presumably, there will be a week or two shut down during Christmas.

Interestingly, the pump didn't appear to pumping, on Wednesday. It was chugging away on my Sunday visit. Normally it is hard for me to tell on Wednesday if the pump is working. I'm some distance from it, keeping myself to the south footpath, and there tends to be quarry plant and local farm machinery making a fair amount of noise.

There was a fair amount of wildlife around, visible on both Wednesday and Sunday. The Widgeon appear to have returned, while on Sunday a large flock of Teal landed in Cormorant lake south. There were the usual flotillas of Teal and smatterings of Mallards et al. No big birds e.g. geese or swans.

Once again it was time to clear Tern island of vegetation. Clearing Tern island should have taken place two months ago but was postponed until this month due to the torrential rain. You do not want to be on an exposed island in cold heavy rain.

Sunday started off cloudy, damp and gloomy. A light, southerly wind and clearing skies gave way to a lovely sunny, almost balmy day which made work outside a real pleasure.  Here are some before and after photos.

I eschewed the island work detail, and stayed firmly on terra firma; albeit a tad moist at the lake's edge.

My mid week stomp around the south footpath takes me up to the works (Bailey) bridge. As I approached the bridge, on a dull, damp, wet manky morning, I noticed a posh Landrover Discovery (Disco) driving slowly along the lorry track on Chandlers farm.  I reached the bridge as the Disco went past, allowing me to catch a glimpse of the occupants.

The driver was a stocky man wearing hi-vis. His passenger looked like a corporate executive type. Slim build, youngish, black hair, wearing the black woollen (?) knee length coat, beloved of corporate types. He didn't look overly enthused.

The Disco proceeded slowly on to Manor farm, following the lorry track westward.  I checked to see if the pump was working - couldn't hear a thing. This is not unusual. The pump is about 75 yards away from the south footpath. South of it is Chandlers farm, with all the heavy plant kicking up a racket, whilst north of it is Manor farm proper. On this particular morning I think they had a tractor chugging around.

Anyway, I hoofed it back toward the Longwater road: partly to see what the Disco was up to and partly to ensure I didn't get rained on by a dirty great black cloud headed towards me.  I finally caught sight of the Disco when I got parallel to the copse. It was stopped up near the Longwater road entrance by the Q bays. As I headed further west, the Disco did an about turn and slowly cruised back the way it had come. I finally lost sight of it at the hill of spoil by the former location of the yellow bridge.

The passenger didn't look like a surveyor; in main lacking the hi-vis that is part of their uniform these days.  I reckon it was a corporate type, either from Inert or Cemex (possibly over from Mexico), come to check up on progress.

Enough speculation, on to the conundrum. From what I could make out, the pump was not working. Which is a bit of a surprise as water levels in Cormorant lake had dropped dramatically over the past week, and still remained low when I visited on Saturday - despite the soggy pasting the area has received over the past few weeks - like today, for instance.

Finch pond has almost disappeared, a tiny vestige remains, and is not connected to the culvert under the Longwater road. I tried to see if there was any other channel or drain constructed to empty water into the Blackwater, but could not discern any.

Thus I am perplexed as to why water levels in Cormorant lake are so low, and emptied so quickly, especially as water levels in Manor lake are quite high. I can only suppose that the pump is now super quiet.  I was too lazy to wander over to the out flow channel into the Blackwater to check if the pump really was off.

Well, this past two weeks Inert continue to fill in Finch pond. It has virtually disappeared. The pond to the west of the causeway is tiny - smaller than a very large garden pond.  The pond to the east of the causeway, and north of the copse is now about the size of a large village pond.  Many manor and country houses have a bigger pond. I was fairly correct with my supposition last week with regard the bulldozer trundling over yet more filled in pond.

Essentially Inert have been pushing soil into Finch pond, gouging out the infill they did earlier in the month. Lorries were depositing inert waste on the south side of Finch pond or should I now say the Colebrook? Essentially, that is what Inert are constructing here - a small pond and the reinstated course of the Colebrook.

I wandered down to the 'scrape' on Cormorant lake this Saturday as I reckon Inert would start work on its infill. Sure enough, sometime over the past couple of weeks or so spoil has been pushed into the lake on its south western shore.  Regretfully, this pond is also for the chop, being reduced in size to a village pond.  Though I believe it will be joined with Manor lake.

Still, too much of the reserve will be hidden from the various footpaths.  What makes Manor farm so unique is the ability to see so much of it as you walk along the south footpath. If any tree planting follows the same format as Fleet hill farm then much of Manor farm nature reserve will be hidden from the footpaths; being visible only from hides. Shame, I feel, as the birds using the lakes and land of Manor farm are quite used to human traffic along the footpaths.

There was precious little wild fowl around on both days. Partly due to most of it having migrated to their winter feeding grounds and partly due to Finch pond disappearing.  Even the reliable Canada geese seem to have relocated themselves to Moor Green lakes, Fleet hill farm and (I believe) the reserve pond on Chandlers farm.  There were a load of Pochards around. Least ways I think they were Pochards. They might have been Widgeon.

I am quite confused about the plans for Cormorant lake. On set of plans shows it being joined with Manor lake to form one large lake, and for there to be a viewing point jutting into the lake, and for its south shore line to be close to the south footpath.  However, if you contrast the plans with a Google earth satellite image then the two do not match. Well not unless there is a large amount of landscaping and digging out of infill - which we have seen happens a lot.

Slide show, with a paparazzi style photo reveal.  :-) :-) :-)

Some wildlife shots of what little there were.