21st October 2017

As we head into the second week of October we were treated with storm Ophelia barreling in at the start of the week to wreak havoc to Northern Ireland, North England and Scotland, and then storm Brian joined in at the end to hit Ireland, Wales, the South West and Midlands. The south of England, where we live, was spared the worse affects of these two storms.  We did have to dodge heavy downpours as we took our weekly traipse around the proposed new reserves, and it was a touch breezy.

Once again, very little appears to have happened this week.  Cemex are conspicuous by their absence.

Fleet Hill farm does not appear to have been touched.

There are signs that Cemex have been working on Manor Farm.  Not least the placement of large lumps of concrete, and some churned up ground. The pump keeps pumping, and the water level in Cormorant lake keeps falling.

I also notice that the water levels in Manor lake have also fallen. This was most apparent when viewed from the footpath that divides Manor farm and Green lakes.  I hopped over a fence to get closer and photograph the lake; first time I have been on this side of the reserve.  However, judging by the 'squashed' condition of the mesh fence and path worked into the vegetation, it appears a number of people have done the same. I suspect they were anglers.

Cemex do appear to be working hard on the site south of the Blackwater river.  This is to be given over to functions like community farming - whatever that might mean.  They are certainly digging an enormous hole, and piling the soil into an equally enormous hill. It had grown considerably from last week.

I have a second hand Canon Rebel XTi, and re-discovered the Canon lens that came with it. The camera also came with a Quantrary 55-80mm lens, which isn't bad, but produces quite soft images, to the point I thought the camera was duff.  Not so. The Canon lens produces some nice images - though I do need to figure out how to use the auto focus and metering. The slide show contains a mixture of photos taken with either my DSLR or bridge camera.  Can you tell the difference?

We talked to a twitcher, who told us there were quite a few Little Grebes in the lakes, and spotted a Pochard far in the distance whilst we were talking. I wouldn't have known what a Pochard was if it came up and bit me on the leg! After consulting our trusty RSPB pocket guide to British birds when we got back home, we might have a fighting chance of recognising the blighter in the future.