Annoyed lorry drivers in tipper jam, a mid-week special. 20th February 2019

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.