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.

The order of the photos in the slideshows follows the order in which we tend to walk around the two works. Starting at the Moor Green Lakes reserve car park: Walk South down footpath to River Blackwater. Turn right, walk along footpath along Southern edge of Manor farm. As we get halfway along the Manor Farm part of the reserve we climb over a steep foot bridge (over service pipes) and cross a large bridge built by Cemex to cross the Blackwater river.

About here are the areas I have been calling Cormorant lake and the pump station. The Cemex map and Google Earth images differ as to what is here.

We then continue West, take a dog leg right to pass the sewerage works, to end up at Longwater road. I then would photo the machinery on Manor Farm next to the culvert, before crossing the road to photograph good old Stone Crusher on the Fleet Hill farm part of the reserve.

Initially I tended to concentrate on Fleet Hill farm as this was to be completed first, with Manor Farm following 2 years after.  Therefore there are a lot of photos of Stone crusher, and the landscaping around the kissing gate and foot bridge.

We'd then dive into the woods to walk past the Alpaca farm to Finchampstead before turning right to follow a footpath past the allotments, over Longwater road, and back to the car park.

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.

Approximately 18 months later, Manor Farm will be incorporated into the reserve.

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.

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

NOTE: As I became more familiar with this part of the reserve and explored more of it, so the number of reference points increased.  The Google earth image has become more cluttered.  I will revisit this image when I get a little bit of time and make it neater.

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.

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.

As usual, dear reader, I popped down to the Manor farm workings on Thursday to see what was up. I tend to go at a quiet time, when some of the workers are having their lunch.  This is not planned by me, it simply works out this way.

Inert and contract hauliers were back on Manor farm making great progress with in filling Finch pond. This time I noticed they worked on the north and south sides of the pond, with the bulldozer shuttling between the two.  I am not sure how the lorry drivers decide where to drop their loads, but they are not hesitant. They trundle up, reverse, drop the soil, then trundle back for another load.

Some drop their loads for the boulder sorter outer, but I figure this is easier to decide upon.

I was also intrigued by all the trackways put down to guide the lorry drivers. Mostly marked with raised banks of soil, I have noticed the use of big boulders, and now traffic cones.

Again the assortment of different haulage companies involved was noticeable. Underpinned by John Stacey, it looks like Cemex are hiring whomever they can whenever the lorries come available.

This week I noticed that the main trackway used by the lorries had been damped down.  Not surprising considering the amount of dust kicked up.  As I was making my way back to my car I noticed the vehicle responsible. A tractor with water tank came trundling down the trackway. It turned and reversed down to the shore of Finch pond, where it filled up with water.  Sensible.

Moving on to Fleet Hill farm, I noticed that work continued throughout the week on this part of the new reserve.  The remainder of the trees were planted out, as well as the reeds.  The latter were dotted about the numerous ponds on this part of the reserve, all protected by chicken wire fencing.  No doubts to keep the numerous rabbits and deer from feasting on them

I was quite surprised how few reeds were planted. OK, in reality I reckon a couple of hundred or more plugs in all, but I thought it would be much more extensive. Still whomever planned all this knows far more than I.

My biggest luck was in photographing a Weasel, even more so I feel as I keep to the tracks.  I was quite astonished how small they are. I think it happened upon a dead Water Vole. As is the case, I heard a rustling and quick flash of movement in the grass, then thought nothing more figuring the creature had dashed off. However, the rustling continued and then I spied the Weasel near the edge of the track about 6' (2 metres) from me.

I suspect it had detected the dead vole and was checking it and me out cautiously. Eventually it decided the vole was worth eating and that I wasn't a threat, so grabbed the vole.  Strangely it didn't take off immediately, but checked me out again, thus allowing me to take a photo of it complete with its food.

Before the slide shows, a quick visualisation of what Inert are doing to Finch pond, and possibly Cormorant lake.  Bear in mind that plans can change, but the left image is taken from what is supposed to be the most up to date outcome for the west area of Manor farm.  Though I have my suspicions about the accuracy of the outcome of Cormorant lake.

The image on the right is from Google Earth as of last year. The blue hatched area is my best estimate of the progress Inert have made in filling in Finch pond. As you can see they have a fair ways to go, but I reckon they can easily finish it this year.

The slide shows kick off with Fleet Hill farm.  I must remind you, dear reader, that I do have permission to be on the site.  Even so I am keeping to tracks, well away from possible breeding birds.

It was pure heaven not walking on muddy, squelchy soil or in freezing, wet weather. It is amazing how quickly the soil dries out.  I am quite intrigued by the tree plantings as their positions screen most of the reserve from both the bridle path and existing footpath.  Bit of a shame, I feel, even with the viewing points.

As I get to know the lakes better over the next few months I may begin to give them unofficial names.  I might call one of them Lapwing pond - as Lapwings are most evident on it.  They are always flying around this lake, defending their territories from other birds.

A Roe (?) deer kept a wary eye on me from the shore of Lapwing pond. It never moved from its spot all the time I was there - mostly photographing the Weasel.  It might have been guarding a fawn. I kept my distance, trying to look as least threatening as possible.

Now on to the Manor farm part of the future new reserve. Some photos were taken on Thursday on my bridge camera. It does so well in good strong sunlight; deep joy. I made a short foray into the site on Saturday, but kept close to the Longwater road entrance. Again, I must stress that I have permission to be on the site, but even so I am currently keeping to tracks and well away from Cormorant lake and the grasslands.

Finally, a couple of images of a Hoverfly. What attracted me to this insect was the noise it made as it flew. It made a loud, reasonably high pitched buzzing noise as it flitted about my back garden; not the usual hum of a bee or wasp. I knew it wasn't a bee. Instead I thought it was some sort of fly - as in blue bottle type fly.  After photographing it and then hunting on t'internet I discover it is one of the 200+ species of Hoverfly we have in this country! I never knew we had that many species.

What a lovely warm, bright morning for a stomp around the Fleet Hill farm part of the planned new reserve.  After dropping the memsaab off to take part in the Wokingham walk, I descended on Fleet Hill farm and walked along bits I haven't presented you with in this blog. Those bits are the bridle path that Cemex created last year.

The planting of trees west of the wooden footbridge is very extensive, with quite a lot more still to go in. I do find the position of the trees a little puzzling as it would screen the reserve from both the new bridle path and the existing footpath.  Granted there will be viewing points, but it does seem a little odd to screen so much of the reserve.

At the end of my jaunt I did spy trays of plug plants awaiting planting. They kind of looked grass like - possibly reeds. I know there is meant to be extensive reed planting on Fleet Hill farm.

The highlight was spotting a Hobby flitting about the northern edge of the reserve, near the woods. I did see it last year but wasn't able to photograph it.  Today I managed to haul off some shots, even though the blighter was partially screen by a hedgerow.   I managed one shot that was quite decent, given the limitations of my ancient cheap second hand DSLR and Tamron 14-300mm lens.

I have the DSLR set to an ISO of 200 which makes fast moving shots a little tricky with fast shutter times. I might try it at its max of 1600 (told you it was ancient) as I read that the xTi isn't bad at this ISO setting. Not much I can do about the paltry 10MPs though. It can still take great photos, even with its ham fisted, naive owner at the controls.

I was a little surprised at how little wildlife there was on the Fleet hill farm part of the reserve.  It is possible that I went at the wrong time i.e. mid morning and not winter. I know there are huge numbers of birds around during winter months. It is also possible that although the most advanced in terms of restoration, Fleet hill farm was also the most recently active as a reserve, plus there would have been disruption last year due to the restoration efforts.  Even so, some Lapwings have made it their home, and were having territorial battles.  The usual plethora of Mute swans, Mallard, Coots, Moorhens and Tufted duck were around.

Over the coming months I plan to get more acquainted with this part of the new reserve.

I started my walk at the Longwater road entrance to the footpath through Fleet Hill farm. I followed this round to the wooden footbridge, with its new Kissing gate - the metal kind to stop motorcyclists entering the reserve. Then I struck off west along the unadopted bridle path to the western edge of the reserve, where it abuts Fleet Hill farm.  I went off piste (remember I have permission to do so) to return to the wooden footbridge via the middle set of lakes.

Now the wildlife bit.  I will start, dear reader, with two photographs from my garden. I was well chuffed to observe at least eight Starlings industriously hunting for Leatherjackets in my lawn and edge of borders.  Partly as they are helping control the damaging Leatherjackets, but mainly as their numbers have increased markedly since last year.  I wasn't able to get all eight that I observed at once into one photo.  There may be more than eight, as they flitted to and fro.

I managed some rather nice photos of the Great Crested Grebe which appears to have relocated itself back to Lower lake now that the weedkiller spraying has stopped.  The weedkiller is killing off Dock, Nettles, Himalayan Balsam (still loads of these left), and other non-grass species.  Not sure if this is a good idea or not, as apart from Himalayan Balsam the other species do host a lot of wildlife.

I find that the Great Crested Grebe and the Little Egret are tamer and more accepting of humans on this lake. I suspect it is because so many people walk along the bridle path bordering the edge of the lake.  I've never been so close to a Great Crested Grebe.  Even the viewing hides on Moor Green Lakes do not get me this close.

After a short hiatus, due to the magnificent bank holiday weather, your wet footed blogger is back.

Firstly: Whilst I have permission to be on the Eversley Quarry site (all you interlopers take note) I will be largely keeping to the footpaths for a couple of months. Partly this is due to the bird breeding season being in full swing (I'd be gutted if I stepped on a Sky Lark nest on the grasslands or a nest of other birds on/near the mudflats), but also as walking along the north embankment has now become unpleasant and a tad dangerous. It is unpleasant due the near waist height nettles and grass soaking soaking my trousers through, which is not much fun at 7:30 am. Also, with all the deer around I have to contend with ticks; I have had a couple hauled out of my flesh. The thick vegetation makes clambering up and, more pertinently, down the steep side of the ridge tricky in the extreme as it is impossible to see foot/hand holds. I have slithered down at least once - luckily no injuries, except pride.

Inert have also joined in the conservation efforts by keeping off certain parts of the site - mainly Cormorant spit and the north/east shores of Cormorant lake.  They appear to have turned off the pump to allow water levels to rise a tad to stop foxes and badgers getting onto Cormorant spit - which is now a large island. However, a narrow channel of water is not going to deter a fox or badger if they are minded to get onto Cormorant island.  Inert are still continuing to fill in Finch pond.

Secondly: a slight change to the schedule. Now that spring has finally sprung, the garden and other outdoor pursuits beckon. Thus the weekends become somewhat precious. Apart from the odd walk along the reserve with my partner, I will lessen the frequency of weekend forays.  However, currently I find it more interesting to pop over to the reserve at lunchtime on week days as so much is going on. It was dead boring when there was only one lorry and our bulldozer making the odd appearance.

I may not take and post endless photos of the shores of Finch pond inching ever east and north or of seemingly identical shots of lorries and diggers.  The latter might make for a great time lapse sequence, but it will be tedious and boring if published every week.

So what has happened during my short hiatus?

The gates to the Fleet Hill farm part of the reserve were both wide open when I arrived. Intrigued I hopped across the Longwater road to investigate. My nose was assailed by the metallic smell of weedkiller. Any of you who have put weed and feed onto your lawn will know what I mean.  Sure enough there was a man on a quad bike trundling around the shores of the lakes spraying stuff. It could only be weedkiller.

Anyway I walked around to the wooden footbridge.  There was a man repairing the fencing along the footpath, and he had also installed new metal five bar gates (the old gates had toppled over) and a metal kissing gate on the footpath to the north edge of the reserve. About time to.

I had a chat with the chap. Seems that the female horse rider who had been illegally riding her horse up and down the footpath was rather angry about the kissing gate and had a right go at the tradesman - who simply said talk to Cemex.  Apparently she apologised to the chap the next day - so might have got an earful from Cemex.

Hopefully this should stop her riding her horse on the footpath and out of bound areas of the reserve - there is a perfectly good bridle path built by Cemex - which shouldn't get torn up like the footpath has. I wouldn't like to meet a hulking great horse on the narrow footpath - you'd have to squeeze yourself against hedges to allow the animal to pass, and hope it doesn't get spooked and lash out.  The northern end of the footpath, where it enters Finchampstead village, has a large, clear sign explicitly stating that horse riders should not use the footpath.

I also noticed that the tree planting has continued to the west of the wooden bridge - probably going up to Fleet Hill farm itself.  The fence building chap was told that some 8000 trees were being planted.  Hmmm, that's 2000 more than the tree planters told me the other week. No matter at least they are going in.

Unfortunately I have no photos of all this work. My ancient DSLR had an apoplectic fit. The photos I took of the kissing gate and wooden bridge area were totally overexposed. No matter of fiddling in image processing software could produce something viewable. Also, photos I took of the various tree planting exercise were deleted! I think this had more to do with Windows 10, as I had to abort the download.  I'll try and persuade the memsaab to go for an extended walk this weekend so I can take some snaps.

On to Manor farm. Yes, the lorries continue to trundle through and dump soil, which the bulldozer driver has pushed into Finch pond.  However, today the bulldozer was no where to be seen. As I have mentioned before, this is not unusual. Inert seem to flit all over the three sites.

Activity around the Yellow bridge was also muted. The old roadway to the bridge has been dug out completely and fed into the boulder sorter outer.  The piles of soil around this beast continue to grow ever larger, and lorries appear to be bringing it soil to sort, which a sole digger feeds to it.

My suspicion is that the sorted soil will be partly bulldozed into Finch pond, and partly spread across the 'land mass'.

Wildlife was muted - as you would expect with all this activity.  I did spot a Great Crested Grebe in Cormorant lake.  May be it decided to translocate itself from Fleet Hill farm due to the spraying.

I'll start with some wildlife photos. These were taken over a period of a month.

Let's start with the belligerent crow - Carrion I think.  You may remember that I have mentioned the crows seem particularly belligerent on this site - attacking anything that annoys them.  I have seen one mobbing a Buzzard and Red Kite before, but never managed to photograph it.  Well I managed to do so about a month ago.  Unfortunately they were over The Ridges, which was at least 500 yards away from where I was standing on the south footpath.  My ancient DSLR and Tamron 300mm lens did its best, but the birds largely come out as dots.

The crow launched a series of attacks on the Buzzard. It would first chase the Buzzard and, in a classic aircraft dogfight manoeuvre, climb above the Buzzard. When the crow reached a suitable altitude it would dive onto the Buzzard.  The Buzzard would be weaving to and fro so that sometimes the diving crow would immediately clash with it. Other times the crow would have miss but have sufficient momentum from the dive to bank hard and clash with the Buzzard.  This whole manoeuvre would then be repeated for 5 to 10 minutes.

These are various shots of wildlife over the past month or so. Some are on Fleet Hill farm others on Manor farm. Taken at various times of the day with my bridge camera - which does well in good light conditions and offers 1200mm zoom for those long range shots.  When the price drops I may consider a Nikon P900 in the future, with its 83x (or 2000mm equivalent) zoom. We always want that extra zoom :-)

After a frosty start to the first of May (!!!) we set off to the reserve at 14:00ish to see what Cemex et al were up to.  Needless to say the lorries are still trundling, the bulldozer still dozing, and the diggers still demolishing the old roadway and feeding all sorts into the boulder sorter outer.

There didn't seem to be as many lorries today - I counted about ten - but regardless considerably more of the west side of Finch pond has been filled in. I reckon Cemex et al will soon start on the north embankment - unless the intention is to keep or landscape it i.e. give it a gentle slope for the bridle path.

Walking round the south footpath to Cormorant spit it became immediately obvious that Cemex have built a rather nice scrape.  If they haven't then they have gone to a lot of trouble to landscape a nice pile of sand and gravel.  All the evidence strongly suggests that they structure built on the north part of Cormorant spit is a scrape.

Not only has a scrape shaped lump been built, but the gap which was opened to let vehicles onto Cormorant spit has been closed off. The banking has been built up again thus prevent vehicles driving onto Cormorant spit.

There was a reasonable amount of wildlife around, all going about their business and ignoring the vehicles and personnel around them. I've only posted a few of the images I took. One set in particular I have not posted as I can't work out if it is a bird settled on the spit or is a bit of rubbish.

I really feel, dear reader, that Cemex are going all out to finish the restoration of Manor farm. There is no sign of them abating their pace, and they still have plenty to do. I must admit to not knowing what the final plan is for this part of the reserve.  I've seen at least three different sets of diagrams, all different.  Time will tell, as the adage goes.

A MGLG member, whose house overlooks the site, agreed with me on the frenzy of activity that has taken place over the past week. For months he has seen the odd lorry or two pottering around the site, with the bulldozer and occasional digger.  Now it as like the flood gates had been opened.

I visited the site on Thursday 26th April, at roughly 13:15.  Our stalwart bulldozer was now working at the Longwater road entrance, shoving earth and the western shore of Finch pond ever eastwards.

Space was, initially, quite tight around this area. Lorries would trundle around Finch pond then drive into the Longwater road entrance as far as the gate, before reversing towards Finch pond. It was very skilful driving, especially as there were lorries coming from all directions.

Every now and again the bulldozer driver would get out of his cab to direct traffic, guiding lorries to the shore of Finch pond.  There was not a lot of space between the lorries.

I felt there were possibly fewer lorries around on Thursday, compared to Tuesday, but not by much. I think a couple of the locals, e.g. Collard, were not around.  I counted a minimum of ten lorries, but it is difficult to estimate as they keep moving!

Two diggers were at work around the site of the Yellow bridge. Unlike Tuesday, both were concerned with feeding the boulder sorter outer.  I felt it was rather curious.  One digger would be digging out the bed of the road that wound up to the Yellow bridge, loading the rubble into the huge dumper truck.  When full, the digger driver would beep his horn, and thenthe dumper truck would drive the 20 or 30 metres to the boulder sorter outer, then go round it, before reversing to dump its load.

A second digger would then feed the soil into the boulder sorter outer, whilst the huge dumper truck went back for another load.  I couldn't see why the boulder sorter outer wasn't moved closer to the old road, so the rubble could be fed directly into it.

I realised, whilst watching it, that the boulder sorter outer produces three grades of sorted 'stuff'.  Fine: basically soil.  Medium: looks like gravel upto about 50mm in diameter. Coarse: Anything bigger than the previous two.

The amount of dust the lorries kicked up was a sight, even though they had to drive quite slowly. The track way was exceedingly bumpy.  All the rain on Friday would have dampened down the soil, so relieving the drivers of the dust.

I popped back to the site on Saturday morning, and encountered the usual bleak, moist weather, with overcast conditions.  I managed to avoid the worst of the rain, which only started toward the end of my trek.  Unfortunately my nemesis - mud - made its reappearance.  Thick, horrible stuff.

The change, particularly around the Longwater road entrance, was astonishing. Large vistas of flat land, extending into what was Finch pond.  Water levels were at the lowest I have ever seen them, but actually higher than when the quarry was still extracting.

Unfortunately, the water levels were still not low enough for me to cross the channel between Finch pond and Cormorant lake. I was forced to take a long detour.  As usual I kept off the gravel spit (between Cormorant lake north and south), and kept clear of the mud flats just in case there were any birds brave enough to nest there with all the noise, machinery and humans around them.

I am not sure what Cemex are doing with the north end of Cormorant spit. They have dumped a huge pile of sand and gravel there.  It would be nice if it were turned into a scape. The birds desperately need one.  However, I am not sure what the plan is for Cormorant lake.  An early one shows it merging with Manor lake to the east, with its north part being turned into reed beds.  The plans have changed, but to what, I do not know.

Wildlife was sparse, today.  The Shelduck were absent. Perhaps they have decided to use the lovely nest which the Moor Green Lakes Group built for them on Plover island. As usual, the armadas of Tufted ducks were bobbing around, but not as many I felt.  Even the Roe deer put up a poor showing. Only three of them.

Two slide shows today. The first is from my visit on Thursday. The second,with all the murky photos, from my visit today.

  Now on to Saturday's photos. I did edit some to brighten them up, as it was so dark this morning.

I will add that the pump was rattling a little this morning. It sounded like the fan. Poor thing has been pumping continuously for months now.  It's getting tired and needs a rest.

It is getting more difficult to walk along the north embankment and ridge. The nettles are now over knee high. I got soaked through this morning with all the rain drops on them. In a month or so I reckon they will reach chest height or higher.  I once walked through stuff that high, whilst hunting for sink holes around White Hart, Hertfordshire.

Comments will be added later on this evening or tomorrow.

I had to take my cats to the vets, yesterday, and noticed a hive of activity on Manor farm, plus some 'white van man' fellas and their vans with working on the gates to Fleet Hill Farm. I decided to investigate today and visited the reserve at 14:00.

I was met with quite an astounding sight. Firstly on the Fleet Hill Farm part of the reserve I noticed a forest of green tubes and tree stakes - obvious signs of sapling planting. Before investigating I took off around the south footpath to see what was happening on Manor farm.

Wow!

It was an extraordinary sight.  I walked along the south footpath to the works bridge and then back again, taking in all that was happening. I have no idea what the restoration operation is costing Cemex (I shall try and find out) but it must stretch into the millions.

Normally I see one or two haulage lorries (the heavy duty bulk carriers) trundling around the site, so it came as a shock to see so many on site. For what might be the last big push to complete the restoration there were a large number of haulage lorries (possibly ten or more) trundling backwards and forwards from Finch pond to the Hampshire side of the reserve. Quite a few companies were used - I certainly recognised John Stacey and local Collard. The flow of lorries was constant, with large amounts of dust being thrown up.

The trackway they were using was single track with one passing point - where the Yellow bridge used to stand. Lorries heading west would patiently wait at the Yellow bridge for lorries heading east to trundle along Finch pond and pass them.  The other passing point - well turning point really - was where they were dumping soil at Finch pond for the bulldozer. Here, lorries heading east to pick a new load of inert soil would patiently wait for fully laden lorries heading west along the single track.

Our bulldozer was industrially working away, dodging in between the lorries, pushing soil into Finch pond. It all looked a bit hairy for me. The vehicles are BIG, and there are a lot of them manoeuvring around a relatively small space. I have no idea how they avoided hitting each other, especially when the haulage lorries were reversing to dump their loads whilst the bulldozer was also reversing, but back from the edge of Finch pond.

I stayed on the south footpath. Not once did I contemplate hopping over the fence 'for that shot'.

Work was also going on at a pace around the Yellow bridge.  A digger was digging away the banking that runs along the south footpath. It would load the soil into a huge dumper truck. When full, the dumper truck would drive across the single track to dump the soil next to the boulder sorter, before crossing the single track to pick up another load of soil. A second digger (our blue digger) would then load the soil into the boulder sorter outer.  All the while the enormous haulage lorries were trundling past them.  Quite a sight.

There must have been two or more diggers on the Hampshire side of the reserve loading up the lorries with inert soil, such was the apparent speed of turn around. Who knows how many other lorry movements were involved in getting the inert soil to the quarry.

There were quite a few birds around the site. Though most chose to put as much of Cormorant lake between them and the lorries. Others were surprisingly close to all the noise and mayhem. Quite oblivious to it all.

I think I have worked out why the banking has been built up along the south shore of Cormorant lake and the west shore of manor lake.  It is for traffic control.  It is to stop the lorry drivers accidentally driving into the lakes.  Stands to reason that if two lorries are passing each other along a relatively narrow track then it is all too easy to get too close to the shore line and end up in the lake.

 Fleet Hill Farm.

Moving over to this side of the reserve. Over the past two days a forest (well small wood) has sprung up. I was down here on Sunday evening setting out a trail cam and I did not see any tree stakes or green sapling tubes. Monday morning I noticed the two vans parked in the south Longwater road entrance and a couple of chaps fiddling with the north Longwater road entrance gates.

When I returned at 14:00 on Tuesday I was met with a forest of green plastic tubes. They were all over the place. There were at least four contractors planting out. Even so, I am very impressed with the speed at which they worked.

I had a brief chat with one of the lads. He said they were planting 6000 trees. When I duly expressed astonishment, he said it was quite a small amount. They are quite used to putting out 100,000+ trees, particularly along motorways. The way he said 'miles and miles' of trees leads me to believe it gets rather tedious planting that many trees in one go.

He wasn't certain if they would be back to plant trees on the Manor farm part of the reserve. I asked if they would plant trees west of the wooden footbridge. He indicated no, but I'm not sure if they or other contractors will be back to plant more trees on this part of the reserve.

I do hope the saplings survive. Some many seem not to make it, from what I've seen on various hikes - particularly on the north York moors and Forest of Bowland. The other problem they face round here are the local yobs and oiks who would think it great fun to rip out all the trees, stakes and tubes. Never mind criminal gangs who will steal them on mass to sell. Sigh.

Fingers crossed all will turn out well. On to the fun bit of the photos. My route started at the Longwater road entrance, following the footpath to the wooden footbridge. I stayed off the reserve so as not to disturb the contractors too much, even though their work was far more sedate than the lorry traffic on Manor farm.  As it was, I felt they just wanted to get on and finish the contract.

After a considerable hiatus, no doubt caused by the inclement weather of late and the resulting high water levels in the lakes (plus a knackered pump), Inert are back with a vengeance.

When I set off for the reserve this morning I felt distinctly underdressed. No thermals. No base and multiple mid layers. No Thinsulate hat, gloves or snood. No heavy weather proof coat. To add to my bemused feeling - it was sunny and bright! Yes a strange yellow disk in the sky made an appearance.

I couldn't get away from my nemesis - mud the consistency of quicksand. Though most of the tracks were now quite dry and hard, I decided to take a shot cut at one point and strike off across some 'dry' mudflats.  Only they hadn't had time to dry out properly. So your mad blogger sand up to his knees in the stuff again.  This time, dear reader, I was aware of what was going on, and didn't get stuck in the stuff by dint of not stopping. Momentum and brute strength carried me through the quicksand mud.

The gates at the works bridge were still firmly closed.  I now suspect this is to keep people off the site. Inert are back with bulldozer, digger and the boulder sorter outer. They have concentrated on the south shore of Finch pond and the area around the copse where our erstwhile Yellow bridge used to stand. It has been ignominiously pushed aside.

Much work has ensued over this past week with soil being bulldozed into Finch pond to extend its south shore ever northwards. A 'mascot' was discovered during excavations.  You'll see it in the slide show. :-) The boulder sorter outer was on the 'Land Mass' possibly to sieve out the rocks from the road way that lead to the Yellow bridge.

I didn't go up to the works bridge to find out if anything has happened on the Hampshire side of the reserve. I was in a bit of a hurry, plus it was obvious Inert were working on the Manor Farm part of the reserve. How long is any one's guess as they tend to flit about the site from week to week. In their defence, I think they were prevented from working fully on Manor farm due to the awful weather and high water levels.

You will notice a considerable change in the photos this week. The trees have greened up. Also the grasses and nettles have put on a staggering amount of growth. This is one of those years where you will miss spring if yo blink. I can only remember the 'spring' of 2013 being worse; when January/February temperatures finally came to an end in mid May.

A note about the slide show. I have included a couple of photos from last weekend when it was somewhat misty and still a little on the cool side.

There was a considerable amount of bird life around - sadly most of it audible; particularly the Skylarks. Some of the usual suspects made an appearance: the two Shelduck which have taken up residence in Finch pond; four squadrons of Tufted duck (two in each of Finch pond and Cormorant lake); Mute swan; Canada goose (yep, singular - only one today); three Egyptian geese; only one Lapwing (who set off for Fleet Hill farm); Gulls and Terns galore screaming at me from Manor lake; Mallards; Wood Pigeons; Carrion Crows; and a few others I could not recognise - intentionally or unintentionally.

The highlight was spotting five Ringed Plovers.  There appear to be two pairs and a single. Though the single may have had a mate somewhere.  They weren't too bothered by my appearance (in fact one pair decided to set about the process of making babies), though in keeping with most all the birds on the reserve they kept a healthy amount of distance between them and me.

I managed quite a few shots with my bridge camera. Some are a little blurry as I went into digital zoom (this give a 'magnification' of 120x), plus I was balanced on a ridge of soil and wasn't using a tripod. I got quite good at holding my breath whilst taking the shot

In response to a tip off from a birder (thanks Michael), my partner and I took off to Fleet Hill farm for a spot of poop pondering. Alas all signs of the interesting poop had been eradicated due to the incessant heavy rain and mammalian traffic; that would be humans, dogs, horses, etc.

A crying shame, as from the photo sent to me by Michael the poop (or should we be more posh and call it spraint) had all the features of something interesting like Mink, Badger or Otter!  Had it been the latter then my trail cams would have been repositioned around the area in a flash.

What has my world become to that I descend on the reserve not once but twice to have a look and poke at poop!

Expect some dramatic changes to the photos in the coming couple of weeks, dear reader. I noticed that trees were beginning to leaf out. The warm weather expected next week will accelerate this process. Already other plants like hogweed, cow parsley, nettles, etc are romping along. Quite a lot of the reserve will be obscured from footpaths as it changes from dreary brown, black and grey to glorious green.

Now dear reader, on to the iron footbridge.  Cemex have finally got around to removing this fine, if somewhat lethal structure from the south footpath. A small part of me will miss this edifice. It always focused my mind to carefully walk up and down the slippery iron steps, but it did provide a good view of the Manor farm part of the reserve.  Many a birder used to pause on the iron footbridge to survey the area. It is amazing how much difference a two or three metre high platform makes.

The bridge hasn't been removed fully. It has been parked on the reserve, awaiting disposal; along with pump station bridge and yellow bridge.

The works bridge has a brand new shiny (and I mean shiny) gate on the north side of the footpath. Both it and the southern gate were closed to vehicle traffic. The latter gates being firmly padlocked. The reasons for this, in addition to my musings last week, could be that Cemex will halt restoration work for a few months to allow the birds to breed in peace. I was reminded of this by Michael, and it tallied with what one of the presenters at the Moor Green Lakes AGM said.  As an aside, the MGLG AGM is really worth attending.  It isn't your usual stuffy old AGM.  Presentations are short and sweet and packed with interesting information, with free food afterwards.

What I do find odd is that the pump is still chugging away, with water levels in Finch pond and Cormorant lake now at the lowest I have seen them. If work is halted, why pump?

You'll notice from the photos that Cemex have spread a bed of gravel across the footpath. I believe that the plan is for the south footpath to be converted into a bridle path.  It makes sense, really. Some naughty horse riders already ride their horses along it, plus there are numerous cyclists who use it. The latter should increase as they no longer have to hoick their bikes over the iron footbridge.  Having a nice wide bridle path should accommodate all users safely.  Though horses really tear up paths something rotten. A bigger problem is keeping motorcyclists off it. I did spot four or five antisocial types haring along the footpath on Fleet Hill farm. They really damaged the paths, though it may possibly have been a one off.

Cemex are putting a lot of effort and money into restoring this site. Hopefully it will become a well recognised asset; though more work for the Moor Green Lakes Group and Blackwater Valley Countryside Trust to maintain.  Part of the fun, really.

There was considerable flooding of the footpath through the Fleet Hill farm part of the reserve - despite the fall in water levels. This was caused, in part, by the drainage ditches being blocked. It added a little interest to our walk.

Light conditions were pretty appalling. Low heavy clouds and mist. It made photography a little challenging, even more so as I only took my bridge camera.

Now a short wildlife section.

As you would expect the breeding season is in full swing. Many birds are nesting, others squabbling for nesting sites and fighting territorial battles.  A couple of Lapwings pairs appear to have set up shot along the south shore of Finch pond and Cormorant lake. While the Great Crested Grebe in Lower lake, Fleet Hill farm, is still alone.

I noticed a UGB (Unidentified Grey Bird) poking around on the shore of Cormorant lake and took several photos. We met a couple of Moor Green Lakes Group members further along the south footpath who immediately identified the bird as being a Redshank. They also reported seeing a Black Redstart. I am continually astonished at the range of birds that this site hosts.

The Swallows and Martins are back, skimming and wheeling around Cormorant lake picking off insects.

My partner who is continually on mammal watch did spot a bank vole,which is quite good going seeing how quick and elusive they can be. After all, we are walking along the footpaths, not sitting still for ages waiting for something to appear.

My trail cam captured this unfortunate fox. He looked fine apart from his traumatised tail; poor thing.

Somewhat unusually, dear reader, the gates across the works bridge were firmly shut today. One set was locked with padlock and chain. Unfortunately, one of the posts holding one of the gates was so rotten it fell over, allowing easy access to the Manor Farm part of the reserve.

Cemex do this every now and again.  Close and lock the gates. I wonder if it is a legal thing? I know that some private roads and footpaths are closed to the public at least once a year. I believe this establishes the right of the owners of to said path/road to do so and reinforces their ownership.

I am afraid, dear reader, that is the extent of the excitement for this week. Cemex/Insert do no appear to have touched Manor Farm. I didn't step over the fallen gate and climb the iron footbridge to see if anything happened to the Hampshire part of the reserve. It is possible Cemex/Inert might have been working on this part of the reserve, as I did hear machinery, but as I didn't walk along the south footpath I couldn't tell for sure.

The pump is still chugging away, just about keeping up with the ingress of water from all the rain we've had over the past week. More rain to come tomorrow.

Even the wild life proved disappointing.  A couple of Shelduck; the usual flotillas of Tufted duck; gulls and terns of course; even the normally reliable Roe deer only put in one appearance. Two Lapwings appear to have made Manor farm their own. They were wheeling around the sky. Only four Canada geese honked into view.  There were the usual assortment of Wrens, Moorhens, Coots, Pigeons, and UBBs (Unidentified Brown Birds) flitting about.

Three Egyptian geese were having a right old barney above the grasslands of Manor farm. They were putting on quite a display, chasing and screaming.  Unusually I saw them land in trees. Normally they plod along the ground.

Even more unusually, as I drove back I spotted a rather bemused Egyptian goose, standing on the corner of Fleet Hill and Longwater road, next to the Greyhound pub. It seemed quite comfortable, just standing there.  Normally they keep as much distance between them and you as is possible.  Then again, they probably do not associate cars with humans.

Unusually for 7:50 am I did espy three bird watchers about.   I'm normally totally on my own that early in the morning. The occasional jogger or dog walker makes a rare sighting.

Afternoon update: My partner and I popped back to the reserve at 12:45; parking in the Moor Green Lakes car park before walking along the north edge of Manor farm, then coming back via the south footpath.  The glorious weather and dry conditions brought out the 'Sunday' walkers in force. Never seen so many people hoofing it along the footpaths.

My partner (who was on mammal lookout) was over the moon as she saw a Kingfisher zooming up the Blackwater. I spotted a snake again along the banks of the Blackwater, but only the lower three quarters of its body as it quickly slithered into the under growth. In all likelihood it was a small Grass Snake; I only saw something brown, about the thickness of my thumb, and roughly 40cm long - well the bit I saw. It moved quite quickly.

Once again we spooked two Shelduck, this time on Finch pond. They flew off, but we then spotted them resting on Plover island (along with Egyptian Geese) on our way back to the car park. A Grey Heron flew over ominously as they do, while a Kestrel kept an eye on us from quite a distance. An Oyster Catcher did attempt to land on an island near the viewing point in Colnbrook lake (south), but the nesting Canada geese (and other birds) put it off.

I did manage to photograph the Skylark on the fields south of the Blackwater. I never thought Skylarks would live in such relatively built up areas. I mean, to the immediate south of the fields are the playing fields; to the east is the active quarry. While on the Manor farm grasslands, we still have all the noise and bustle from the restoration, plus the actual Manor farm along the Lower Sandhurst road with its machinery, and some of the housing along said road.

All in all, quite a good afternoon.

The sogginess slogs on, with continuous rain making attempts to do any gardening almost futile. Unseasonally low temperatures did not help. Even the snow that northern parts had this Easter would have been better than the monotony of dull, grey, drab skies and yet more of the wet stuff.  On the other hand, at least it doesn't look like a drought year.

Anyway, enough of my moaning.  We did pop down to the reserve in between the showers - checking the Met Office's rainfall radar before hand - and found a reasonably varied variety of wildlife. I must learn gull and tern recognition.  There are a lot of them, noisily defending their patch.

We ventured a little into Fleet Hill farm; I really must take another extended walk through it to familiarise myself with the layout and various lakes. We did notice extensive flooding along the Blackwater; and this after water levels had dropped by at least a foot (30cm). I believe there is a planning application to have a path running along the Blackwater.  Well, it will get flooded on a regular basis unless it is built up.

I may add more to this post over the week, depending whether we visit the reserve.  Though it is so cloudy outside right now it looks like late evening and I spy wet stuff falling from the sky.

All photos taken on my Panasonic FZ72 bridge camera. It already suffers from bland, washed out detail, which was made worse by the bad light conditions. In comparison the Canon SX-700HS point-and-shoot camera takes much better photos, with greater detail but doesn't have the same optical zoom (i.e. 30 vs 60) or a view finder. Sigh.  I have a fighting chance of holding the Panasonic steady as I can jam my arms against my body and ram the viewfinder up against my face. Whereas the Canon you have to hold out in front of you like a smart phone.  Double sigh.

Snow, rain, dreary skies, more snow, freezing conditions, rain and yet more rain. Oh, and March winds thrown in. Yes, dear reader, March has thrown everything at us this year.  I'm still waiting to dodge the kitchen sink.

The Blackwater was running at full spate and had, in the odd place, breached its banks along the foot bridle paths; although not by that much.  We have a short respite (a couple of hours this morning and tomorrow supposedly) before yet more of the wet stuff arrives.

Our valiant pump, still chugging away, now has to deal with the considerable run off from Finchampstead ridges and surround slopes, in addition to pumping out water from Manor farm ponds. There is a considerable flow of water from Hawthorn lake, the grasslands and Manor lake into Cormorant lake.  It actually made traversing the area a little tricky.  Small streams have sprung up all over the place, along with some rather deep (i.e. more than Welly deep) puddles.

Still, our pump continues to reduce water levels in Cormorant lake and Finch pond to the point where I almost walked around the north shore of Cormorant lake. Only my nemesis was back: mud the consistency of quicksand. Having learnt the hard way previously, this time I gingerly tested my route, and quickly abandoned it when I sunk into the stuff some 10mm shy of the tops of my Wellington boot. I did, however, walk along the gravel spit and cross the channel (well stream now) between Cormorant lakes north and south.

With all this drivel, dear reader, you may have surmised that nothing much appears to have happened on the reserve this week.  I could see no signs of any activity - except that the fly tipped rubbish on the Longwater road entrance has been cleared; the larder fridge and garden waste. Yeah!

My trail cameras picked up some interesting animals, even with the stupid thing taking 5 seconds to trigger and start recording.  It's taking ages to download the images (partly as I managed to fill one of the 16GB SD cards)., but so far it has picked up the usual Roe deer, Grey Heron (!), Pheasant and a curious fox.  It also recorded the Skylarks trilling away; plus a whole host of other bird call I cannot recognise. I need to get one of those app thingies that helps you recognise bird call.

Talking of birds: either the majority appear to have departed these fair isles for their breeding areas or I am missing them because dawn is so early they've woken up and flown to their feeding sites.  I suspect the former.  However, I did snap two Oyster catchers. We may have a breeding pair.  A couple of Lapwing were skulking around. I think they normally head off to Fleet Hill farm. Perhaps this pair will start breeding on Manor farm - if they don't already do so.  I did startle the odd snipe.  As usual the various gulls and terns were quite raucous.

Although Cormorant spit has reappeared I eschewed a walk along it as the Oyster catchers were on the end of it.

On to the photos.

Firstly, my stint as artist in residence proved quite interesting.  John Lewis was very quiet, with the Lower ground floor particularly barren.  A few people popped by (none of you lot!), and quite a few John Lewis staff came round for a gander and chat.  As a first crack at this lark I found it quite enjoyable.  Roll on the next one.

Here are a couple of photos my partner took on her smart phone.  My usual pose of hunched over and scratching away at a painting.  You can see my first acrylic and scene from the reserve - the gulls on an island in Finch pond.  I am working on my second acrylic and, as it turns out, scene from the reserve.

Moving onto meaty reserve matters. Well, not a lot really, as nothing appeared to happen this week.  I have a few shots of the ever dropping lake levels, despite the best efforts of the manky weather, plus the Blackwater at full spate, with the odd minor breach of banks.  Note, water levels had actually dropped in the Blackwater by the time I took my photos!

Now the wildlife.

Not much to report really. Most of the birds appear to have flown or were seeking refuge from the weather.  I did return in the afternoon with my partner and noticed that there were more birds around. This time we came via Moor Green Lakes.  The lakes were not heaving with wildlife.

A Lapwing was wheeling and creeling around the sky. Note sure why. We were way across on the opposite side of Cormorant lake,whilst it was more interested in something going on around the south footpath.  I did manage to get a more decent photo of the Skylark.  There are quite a few around, and at least one on the Hampshire side of the reserve.

Trail cam photos.

I had two trail cams out on Manor farm. The failure of a Victure (taking four to seven seconds time from trigger to video recording) and the ancient Ltl Acorn (with a more respectable 1.5 seconds time from trigger to video recording).  Once it gets going the Victure takes really good videos, but it is so slow the wildlife has been and gone.  It has a trigger range of 65' (20m), but I can easily walk that distance before it starts recording.

I've purchased a Cornova trail cam. At £65 it is £20 more expensive than the Victure. Unfortunately, I found that its time from trigger to video recording is a disappointing 2.5 to 3 seconds. I almost sent it back, but then discovered that its time from trigger to taking a burst of three photos is roughly 0.8 seconds, and then it almost immediately starts videoing.  Its a keeper, and I'll put it out tomorrow.

Both trail cams caught a reasonable amount this week. Mostly foxes, Roe deer, plus the odd Human (!), Pheasant and Moorhen. No Badger though, unless it shuffled past the Victure.  The odd Human was actually two. I spotted them last week when I put out the Trail cameras.  They were either birders or research people.  Anyway, they realised the trail camera was there and tried to (valiantly) get past it unnoticed.

I've decided to eschew my normal early morning stomp around the reserve, dear reader, as it is raining, and has been so for several hours.  The Met office rainfall radar shows rain bearing clouds heading up north from France, aimed almost directly at Finchampstead. They appear to be forced upward when they hit the Hogs back, causing them to release their rain more intensively on everything downstream.

I'll pop down to the reserve later when it gets brighter.  Cemex/Inert have been working on Manor farm this week. I saw activity as I travelled along the Longwater road.  The blue digger was poking around the Yellow bridge.

Play resumes. :-) I've just got back from the reserve.  Firstly water levels have dropped dramatically, almost to the lowest I have seen them.  Cormorant spit is well and truly back; though in deference to the large number of birds swimming around I did not walk out on to it.  Several islands have started to reappear in Finch pond, and I can now safely cross the channel between Cormorant lakes north and south. It is a mere trickle.

Secondly, Cemex/Inert have been hard at work around the Longwater road entrance.  There is much evidence of activity, and several large piles of earth have appeared.  The drainage channel, cut to drain Finch pond into the culvert, has now been filled in.

Finally, it is rather difficult to see what the blue digger was up to around the Yellow bridge, late on Wednesday afternoon. It looks as if it was cleaning up the soil around said bridge.  Other than that, not much appears to have happened on Manor farm.  I did not hop over to the Hampshire side of the reserve. I went from the pump station straight between Manor lakes north and south to the Moor green lakes footpath.

A gentle plug for the Reading Guild of Artists and your crazy blogger.  Over the next four days, two artists from the RGA will be in residence on the lower ground floor of John Lewis, Reading. That's Heelas to those of a certain age. I will be in attendance on the Tuesday 27th.

Each day we will have examples of our work on display (which you can order - as we are NOT allowed to sell from the shop floor), and will be drawing, painting and chatting to anyone kind enough to approach us.

There is another opportunity to see members of the RGA in action, if you cannot make it to Heelas over the next four days. On April 7th there will be four artists in residence.  They will be drawing real life situations around the store. 

I will not be part of the four.  Partly to give other members an opportunity, but mainly as I can't draw very well.  Continental drift works on a faster time scale than me drawing something decent.

Update: I did a recce this morning. We are located in a summer house, behind the lifts on the lower ground floor.  What you cannot see in these photos are our painting areas on the large table set as if for dining. The layout was very much work in progress.

Update on the update: Seems like the RGA presence is garnering a lot of interest. The four artists in residence report many people coming up to see what is going on, to have chat and also enquire how to either take up art or to improve their art.

Beware that the John Lewis staff have not all been briefed on the whereabouts or existence of the RGA members.  However, dear reader, you are well clued up to where we are.

I'm happy to talk art, nature reserves, wildlife, volunteering, etc, etc, etc.  I can take orders (will even deliver free within 20 miles of Reading) but cannot sell from the shop floor.  10% of my art sales are donated to RSPB.

Manor farm.

Cemex's new pump is still chugging away. It will be interesting to see exactly how low water levels become. I cannot over emphasis how dramatic an affect it has had.  I wonder what the birds make of it all?

I'm quite intrigued at why restoration involves creating large heaps of soil. Earth is bulldozed all over the place. Then before I know it, the stuff is scrapped up again into heaps and banks, before being bulldozed back into the ground again.

Light conditions were foul.  With more blocking highs likely to form over the next few weeks due to the sudden stratospheric warming, it looks as if I will just have to lump it.  On the other hand I could splash out on a new camera (say a Canon 200D) with which I can whack the ISO way up from the current 200 on my Rebel XTi.  However I can't justify the cost (even after saving all my pennies) as I don't think it will improve images that much.  A gloomy day will pretty much produce gloomy images, and cameras will still struggle with detail.

I processed quite a few of the photos I took in some freebie photo viewer. It has basic image processing features, and I used one to make my photos lighter.  It was partly my fault that they were so dark. I accidentally set my camera to fully manual.  Luckily the settings I had did a reasonable job.

Wildlife.

My Victure trail cam is proving to be a disaster. It takes five to ten seconds to start recording, even though it has a stated trigger time of 0.5 seconds. I thus have loads of videos of scenery.  It has to go back, I feel.  Shame as the video quality is a marked improvement on my old trail cam.

I finally got a half decent shot of one Skylark on the grasslands of Manor farm, despite my nemesis of 10/10 clouds. Not as clear as I would have liked, but it has the distinctive wing shape. I spotted what I believe are Gadwalls on Colnbrook lake. I reckon they have been right in front of my nose for months, but because they look like female Mallards I have dismissed them.

Gull/Tern activity around Tern island was raucous. I guess it is territorial and breeding displays. It is that time of year.  There was much wheeling about and flying in the air, accompanied by loud screeching.  The bad tempered coots joined in for good measure.

With all this hoo-ha going on about Facebook I thought I'd tell you, dear reader, that this blog is not connected to Facebook.

The blog feature of weebly has an option to connect it to a Facebook account. Which in turns requires an email account. Which in turn allows Facebook to access the address book in said email account, and who knows what else.  That's too scary for me.

I noticed that there is the ability to 'Like' posts (and indeed some do have likes - which is immensely gratifying to me as it means you like aspects of this blog) but I have no idea what happens if you do so. I assume these Likes have something to do with Facebook.

I am an old stick in the mud curmudgeon who is deeply suspicious of this whole social media scene and precisely what it is 'they' do with your data.

As it is I am somewhat piqued that my website is trawled and catalogued by various net bots, spiders and crawlers, with images and information appearing on other sites throughout the world.  Deeply worrying.

I don't know if you can bear it, dear reader, but I have some further photos of the reserves in snow.  Not as image intensive as last time.  I have missed out some areas, but have included others as we took a different route back to the car park.  These new areas cover the work done by the MGLG volunteers to wit, the hedging and sapling clearance.

Unlike its predecessor, the latest cold snap brought relatively wet snow, with large flakes, that clung better to vegetation, despite a much stronger wind. This resulted in a more wintery scene, with less scouring of snow.

There were more people braving the elements, with relatively heavy traffic obvious in the reserve's car park. Joggers were out in force. Admittedly the temperature was a kinder minus one degree centigrade, and I guess people were more used to the snow.  I think someone actually used the Colnbrook hide!

Wildlife (aka birds) continued to be curiously absent. I don't know if many of the birds decided to migrate or simply spread themselves out over the various lakes as they were all free of ice.  Even our normally reliable Roe deers only put in one appearance.

The exception to this were the bird feeders in the Moor Green Lakes Group car park and the feeding station. They were festooned with birds, and are quite used to people. I was able to snap a few shots of Long-tailed tits and they let be get within 15' (3m) of them. I am very jealous as the flocks that fly around our house rarely visit my bird feeder. Our regular visitors are Jays, Magpies, Blue tits, Great tits, Coal tits, Nuthatch, Great and Lesser spotted woodpeckers, Robins and Blackbirds, with the odd Dunnock, Tree Sparrow, Goldfinch, Chaffinch and Starling.

We kick off with Moor Green Lakes. Colnbrook hide was suitably decked in a deep layer of snow, as were Plover and Tern island. Snow was a good 6" (15cm) deep in places, though there was little drifting even in the high winds.

Moving along to the north edge of Manor farm. This week snow was nicely deep, caught in the grasses and sedges, up to 8" (20cm) deep in places. It made walking interesting rather than challenging. My partner had never walked along this section of the reserve. She was quite enthralled.

Scaling the upper east edge of the north embankment and getting down the ridge required great care due to the steepness of the slope and the slippery snow.

Again you will note that the lakes were not frozen, and there is a dearth of wildlife of the floaty kind.

A slight departure before the next slideshow.  I often talk about the north embankment, ridge, east ridge, gravel spit, Hawthorn lake etc, and unless you walk along the reserve it is difficult to see how they relate to each other.  The next three slides attempts to address that.

They were taken from the south side of Manor farm, next to the south shore of Cormorant lake and from the iron foot bridge.  I have annotated them to, hopefully, give you a fighting chance of understanding the topography.  What is neat about the snow covering is that it delineates features quite nicely.

Back to the slideshow, if you can stand it, dear reader. We continued our walk through the snowy scenes of Manor farm by walking down from the north embankment to the Longwater road entrance, and then along the shores of Finch pond and Cormorant lake, before joining the south footpath at the works bridge i.e. the Blackwater river.

Once again, this was a first for my partner. She normally trudged along the south footpath, patiently waiting for me to finish my frolicking in the reserve.

I'll add captions later on this evening.

 Alas, dear reader, not much appears to have happened on the Manor Farm reserve this past week. There are subtle signs, with tracks abound, but of a wheeled nature. There are hints that a tiny amount may have been done around the pump.  Any work appears to have been shifted to the Hampshire part of the reserve.

The new pump is galliantly chugging away and has lowered lake levels considerably. Cormorant island (or more correctly archipelago) has resurfaced. In another week or two I should be able to walk out on to it again. As it was the channel between north and south Cormorant lakes was sufficiently low for me to cross. However, with the foul weather I didn't take the chance of walking along the gravel bank that separates the two lakes, only to have to walk back again.

Talking of weather, the cold snap arrived with commendable accuracy, as forcast by the Met office. It wasn't snowing when I got up and had my breakfast, but when I set out at 7:20am it began to chuck it down. Small flakes, almost like hail, that stung exposed skin in the brisk wind. The softer, wet big flakes didn't arrive until I had finished my walk.

It was also one of those reverse days, as I call them. It was 1.5 degrees centigrade when I set out, and 0.5 degrees centigrade when I finished my walk at 8:30am. I then went grocery shopping, only to see the temperature fall to -0.5 degrees centrigrade when I finished at 9:30am.

The cold temperatures and brisk wind meant that most wildlife hunkered down. The lakes on Manor farm were strangely empty, as was Stone crusher lake on Fleet Hill farm.  Even the normally reliable and raucous gulls were largely absent. Though I think they hung out in Manor lake.

I did manage a couple of decent shots of a Red Kite and two Lapwings, even in the bad light. The kite, rather unusually, flew quite close and over me. They normally steer well clear of me. Oddly, I was wearing a rucksac with bright orange straps.  I still had to process the photographs heavily in FastStone in an attempt to brighten them up due to the very poor light conditions.

As for the Lapwings, they let me within 20 yards of them and didn't budge for the minute or two I tooks my photos. I was clearly visible to them, what with the orange straps on my rucksac, and they knew I was there. Normally I can't get within 75 yards of the birds; even without the orange straps.

It must be the cold weather that makes them reluctant to fly. Or perhaps they are getting used to your mad blogger clomping around the reserve.

I almost managed to snap a photo of a Skylark, but my nemesis (10/10 cloud) fooled my camera. It wouldn't focus. There are at least two colonies of Skylark. The three I see on the Manor farm grasslands, and the one I almost managed to photograph today.  This particular one is resident, I believe, on the Hampshire part of the reserve.  I often hear it/them as I walk along the south footpath. Other members of the Moor Green Lakes group had confirmed the existance of the Skylarks on the reserve.

My new trail cam fared better this week. I think one reason for this is that I camouflaged the spruce support I mounted it on - the Roe deer in particular steered clear of it the first time as it was a bright beige colour, but seem quite happy with it now brown, black and green. I may also have positioned it more appropriately. I still reckon I haven't got it right, as it seems to take 5-10 seconds to warm up - rather than the advertised 0.5 second trigger time.

Regardless of which, this week it fired 58 times, capturing a fox, Roe deer, Pheasants and a badger!

I was dead surprised about the badger. I can't see any tracks. Quite surprising seeing as the ground is quite soft where I staked the trail cam, and badgers are quite heavy. I also can't work out if there was only one badger or two. The trail cam captured it twice on the same night, though the pictures were too indistinct to see facial features clearly.

The fox was clearly injured on Tuesday 13th March. It limped on its hind right leg. By Thursday 15th March the limp was all but gone; so much so I inititally thought it was a different fox.

I will be a co-artist in residence on Tuesday 27th March, at John Lewis (aka Heelas) Reading. The Reading Guild of Artists (RGA) had a request from John Lewis for artists to be resident on the lower ground floor during their Easter Extravaganza. Another RGA artist and myself will be in attendance with examples of our art from 10.00am to 4.00pm.  Other artists from the RGA will be available daily from the 24th to 26th March.

It sounds awfully posh and formal.  To be honest I am not entirely sure what is expected of us. However, it is an exciting opportunity to do something new and unusual. If I do paint then it will be terribly boring for any on lookers. I'm normally hunched over my painting, squinting at reference photographs, applying paint at a glacial rate as I dab at the paper adding intricate detail. Quite unlike a more flamboyant painter, flashing away using their paintbrush like some fencing foil.

Do come along if you want to have a chat.

NOTE: We are allowed to take orders, but we are not allowed to sell any item of our art to members of the public whilst in John Lewis.

Update: I did a recce this morning. We are located in a summer house, behind the lifts on the lower ground floor.  What you cannot see in these photos are our painting areas on the large table set as if for dining. The layout was very much work in progress.

The volunteers who attended the Moor Green Lakes work detail certainly did not. Ranging in age from 14 to over 84 years in age, the volunteers got a work out clearing scrub and saplings with nothing more than bow saws, lopers and garden shears.

It was suggested that we deal with the small saplings and anything major would be dealt with by the chainsaw gang later on in the week.  Lord Horatio Nelson would have been proud of us as we turned a blind eye to such a piffling suggestion, and hacked down anything that stood in our goal of clearing the east shore of Colnbrook with nothing more than bow saws and loppers.

It was quite an interesting process cutting down trees as most of us had no experience. After an hour or so, we got a good procedure going.  Firstly we assessed which direction we reckoned the tree would fall. Then we would take the bow saw to the tree on the opposite side.  Sawing was easy through normal wood, but some got really saturated when close to the water's edge and made sawing a real slog.

When the saw's blade started binding (which didn't always happen) another volunteer or volunteers would help by pushing against the tree in the intended direction of fall.  Eventually the tree would begin to go, making a nice crackling noise.  If the tree fell into the water it would make a satisfying kersplash noise.  I know how beavers feel now.  We would then haul the tree out of the water, and cut it up to be pulled over to the bonfire.

Even though the turn out was relatively poor this month (somewhat strange considering the wonderful weather - calm, bright and warm) our task was more or less done by lunchtime. The odd tree still standing were dealt with, and the bonfire fed.  A good day's work.  I'm afraid I left, as usual, at lunchtime, and so didn't have the fun of feeding the fire.

The work detail were very lucky with the weather. It normally finishes at about 3:00 pm or when people get fed up. By 4:30pm the heavens opened up with an almighty downpour.

I did not expect much to have happened this past week. Indeed it took some time for my little brain cell to register, partly as I didn't have my usual recce along the south footpath before stomping back along the south shores of Cormorant lake and Finch pond.

I came in via the Longwater road entrance, firstly having to negotiate a bit of fly tipping. Some cretins had decided to dump numerous bags of tree leaves and a bit of trellis; stuff that a rubbish tip would gladly take and turn into compost.

Anyway, I noticed that water levels in Finch pond and Cormorant lake had dropped considerably. So much so, as I walked along the north embankment and ridge I contemplated traipsing down to the gravel spit and cross over the channel between Cormorant lakes north and south.  Glad I didn't. The water levels weren't quite low enough.

The reason for the dramatic drop in water levels was that the shiny new pump was back in operation.  It was all hooked up and chugging away.  It appeared much quieter than the previous pump. The pumping over the past week has led to the return of Cormorant island.  It is still quite small, but big enough for birds to use, and fight over.

As I feared, dear reader, it is the beginning of the end for the Yellow bridge. Inert have been hard at work removing the earth/ballast banking built up against the bridge to form the vehicle road way.  It took me a bit of time to twig what had happened as I made my way toward it.  I could see the blue Inert tank and thought nothing of it.  Until I realised I should not be able to see it from east of the bridge, as it should have hidden by an earth bank.

I took a new route today, coming around Hawthorn lake and along the east shore of Cormorant lake.  I wanted to photograph the curved pipe which the gulls like standing on.  The whole area is quite boggy - intentionally so, and I think I spooked quite a few Snipe.

Rather distressingly I found a lot of rubbish strewn along the former water line, caught up on top of the sedge. Water levels were so high the junk got washed above the sedge, only to be caught in the sedge as levels dropped.

The highlight of my morning was to photograph an Oyster catcher. Only I thought it was a Lapwing, due to having photographed two earlier in the walk. It was when I got home and dumped the photographs onto my laptop that I found out it was an Oyster Catcher. Serious birders my roll their eyes up, but I do get excited seeing birds like Lapwings, Oyster Catchers, etc.

I have split the slideshows into two sections today. They are not as heavy on the images as the past couple of weeks.  The first covers Cemex/Inert's continuing restoration efforts.  The second covers wildlife I spied on my stomp.

Light conditions were pretty poor this morning. Static photos weren't too bad. Action shots were challenging. I suppose I could up the ISO on my DSLR, but that tends to introduce more noise.  It's pretty old technology, being a Canon Rebel XTi.

Wildlife

I have noticed that the crows on Manor farm appear to be particularly belligerent. I have seen them mobbing other birds, including the poor little resident Kestrel.  Today I caught photographic evidence. Some Herring gulls (juveniles I think) landed close to a couple of crows on Cormorant island. One crow was having none of it and attacked the gulls, seeing them off.

I am now 99% convinced there are Skylarks on the Manor Farm grasslands between Hawthorn lake and Cormorant lake/Manor lake.  I have heard them, but sometimes they do sound like Reed buntings, but today I think I spooked three in the grass.  They were roughly the correct size and shape and made the correct noise.  The clincher for me was when they settled down they landed on the ground in the grassy tussocks.  I can't see Reed buntings doing that by choice.

Unfortunately both cameras were having trouble picking the small birds out against the grey clouds when I tried to photograph them in the air. I am determined to get a photograph. They are seriously endangered, and it would be great if there were a breeding pair or three on the reserve.