I paid a site visit on Thursday. I did not return later in the week to wander over Manor farm to observe progress - it was too hot. Inert were not doing anything on Manor farm. I could not hear any sound of activity as I walked from the MGLG car park to the bailey bridge; pausing often to photograph wildlife. Two diggers were in evidence, but silent. At first I assumed it was tea break, but half an hour later, after walking almost to the sewage works and then back, there was still no activity. Even Chandler's farm was silent. Hmmm, are Inert in flit mode? Tinkering here and there on Manor farm, with no major thrust. I grant you that pump station mound has shrunk in size, since I last visited, but by not as much as I'd hoped. One digger (blue) was poised on the east end of pump station mound, no doubt to fill any heavy earth movers. One other digger (yellow) was near the west side of the mound, half crouched in the undergrowth. Doing what, I do not know for certain. I can only assume flattening the raised side of pump station mound i.e. the bit I declined to clamber up last week. The largest of the Finch pond complex was looking rather resplendent. I was hoping its southern shore would be closer to the south footpath. Shame most of the open water will be hidden from the footpath by reeds. As I mentioned earlier, I did not return later in the week, when Inert had ceased work, to stomp over the site. Partly as it was too hot, partly as I decided to wait for more restoration to be completed, and partly as I was rather tired from swimming 28 lengths (700m) of butterfly in 50 minutes at lunch time. Not in one go, I hasten to add. Rather 28 x 50m of 1 length butterfly and 1 length backstroke. I do hope activity picks up, there is still a fair amount of fettling to be done if restoration is to be completed by the latest, delayed date of 2023. There isn't a huge amount to be said about this stretch. Inert have returned to working along the south side of the site, along the copse. What I couldn't see from the south footpath was the fact that Inert have created two vehicle tracks running from pump station mound to just before the copse. This allows two-way traffic! Yeah, finally. In pursuit of their creation of the Finch pond complex, there has been some work, mainly odd bits of bulldozing, and some forming of spits and banks along the south side of the largest of the Finch pond complex. They have also built some mounds or scrapes. There were always mounds in the pond, but Inert have built them up and shaped them. Two curious ones are long thing, east-west oriented mounds. I have seen this in another lake on the Fleet Hill part of the reserve. On Friday evening, Inert were working late, and I noticed one of the diggers perched high on the biggest of the mounds. Although he wasn't active at the time, I can only assume he was building it up. If these mounds to remain then it is good news as the birds love them. They only problem is to build in a mechanism to stop them eroding away. What Inert have done, are doing to pump station mound is rather curious. It continues to shrink in size, as it is used to infill and upfill Cormorant lake (south). What I do not really understand is what Inert have done to it. At one point, a couple of weeks back, I wrote that Inert were using spoil from this mound to infill 'pump station pond'. Only I discovered they haven't. Instead they have built a tall, imposing bank that looks like a rampart. They have also given the mound a flat top. However, this flat top appears far higher than the wetlands to the north of the mound. I'm afraid I didn't really check out what the height of this flat top was like in relation to the south footpath or the pump station. It might be that it is the same level as the south footpath. I shall ascertain next time I am on the site. I would expect the bulk of pump station mound to have disappeared by the end of this week, if progress continues at the pace it has so far. Not a huge amount can be said about this. Inert filled in and uplifted the last remaining part of Cormorant (south) during spring. This will be the bit between the north part of the lake down to what was the scrape. Also, the infill and upfill was pushed eastward to stop just shy of the established wetlands. After taking a closer look at the latest plans (duh, always helps) I know why the upfill is slightly higher than the wetlands. Its supposed to be. There is a low bank that runs around the wetlands, which also means a slightly elevated land mass. There was a large amount of sludgy mud around the eastern edge of this upfill. I can only assume it came from dredging to make the drainage ditch, which Cormorant lake (south) has effectively become, deeper. Cormorant lake c'est mort. Vive la Cormorant lake. Part 3. Upfill of mudflats. 11th July 202211/7/2022
During my self imposed exile from the site, due to breeding season, I was able to note that Inert had built up the land bridges (confirmed by the Inert site manager), and that they appeared to have infilled and upfilled the north half of Cormorant lake (south), heading ever eastwards. I can confirm that this has been the case. The chalk land bridges have been raised by a foot or two. The upfill now covers all of the former mudflats - that were very popular with wild birds - and now stops just shy of the established wetlands; which consist mainly of sedge. First some apologies if anyone has read this post when first posted. In that initial post I expressed confusion as to why the latest upfill was much higher than the wetlands. I wondered if this meant a colossal amount of extra work to bring the wetlands to the same height as the solid ground. Err...no. Having examined the latest site plan properly I can surmise that the solid land area is higher than the wetlands (by definition, it almost has to be), and I spotted that the wetlands will be surrounded by an embankment. A hint of this banking can be seen already just south of Hawthorn lake. Anyway, Cormorant lake (south) is effectively gone. Some fragments exists round the edges serving as drainage ditches. Oddly, the run off from the north part of the site, Manor farm proper and the Ridges, drains eastward along these ditches. They should drain westward. Still there is lots of time for the land to be landscaped to achieve this. Further more, it might be in the plans that the drainage of this part of the site should be directed to the new Manor Lake. Cormorant lake c'est mort. Vive la Cormorant lake. Part 2. Finch pond complex.11th July 202211/7/2022
It does help to look at the latest plan from Cemex on the council planning site. As you read these part posts, bear in mind I didn't examine them properly. There is now a large Finch pond that stretches from the copse to the sewage works. It is shallow. It is long and this. It looks as if it will have lots of reed beds. The Colebrook will flow in a brand new channel, just north of the new large, thin Finch pond. It is possible I saw the digger creating this channel on Tuesday. It looks suspiciously like a dyke. There are several small ponds to the north of the 'dyke'. But the good news is Finch pond will be reinstated as a large, long thin body of water, close to the south footpath. The bad news is that it will be surround by reed beds - from the looks of the plans. Having been to Leighton Moss (many moons ago), I can say you wont see much bird life with all those reeds. Yes, you will see some, if you are patient. But they wont be front and centre, like on the lakes of Moor Green Lakes or Fleet Hill farm. However, the design of Finch pond and Manor lake can change, without notice. I find I have lots of time on my hands today. A new gas boiler is being fitted. I thought it best to continue with my mega update. This post concentrates on the work done on the Finch pond complex. The new Finch pond is not one but a number of small ponds, dotted around the west side of the copse. Right now it is difficult to work out which is which, or even which is the main, large pond of the complex. I can only surmise. Anyway, Inert dispatched a digger, last week, to work on the complex. From what I can work out, the digger operator 1. Created a sort of embankment along the north shore of what I believe to be the main, large Finch pond. To the north of this embankment is a shallow area of water, which might be one of the smaller ponds. 2. Worked on landscaping and smoothing the north and east shores of the 'main' pond, creating a spit that juts out into the middle of the pond from its eastern edge. 3. Appeared to create and smooth a series of mounds which look suspiciously like scrapes but with out the gravel. A couple of the mounds are long and thin, running in an east-west direction. The only problem with these 'scrapes' is that they will be eroded away by water action, unless they are protected by some sort of membrane. However, the lake is so shallow, I reckon it is possible for people to wade into it to repair them. It is certainly possible to drive a digger into the shallow water. A bit of self indulgent trumpet blowing. My acrylic painting, Wheee!, has been selected by a panel of judges for exhibiting in the David Shepherd Wildlife Artist of the Year 2022; 1st Sept to 2nd Oct.
I photographed this beastie from the Colebrook hide (north) viewing screens as it hurtled across Colebrook lake north, some 100m to 150m from me. Even with my lens set at 600mm, the bird itself occupied a small part of the photograph. Headline says it all, though not quite. Firstly, in a historical break from tradition, this progress update will be spread over a number of posts. For the first time in months, I have ventured onto the Manor farm site. I have it on good authority that Moor Green Lakes Group have no objects to Inert continuing site wide restoration, rather than just the east portion of what was Cormorant lake. For why? There are no birds nesting on the ground. All have fledged. Some, like Little Ringed Plovers, may even start migrating. Although being restricted to the south footpath, I have been able to note what Inert have been up to and piece together their progress. I was surprised, therefore, to discover that Inert have made far more progress than I had imaged. Cormorant lake is now effectively gone. It has been both filled in and built up. Except for a tiny, rectangular section leading to the pump station; which was off, by the way. Details of Inert's progress will be revealed in subsequent parts of this post. Without revealing too much, we'll start with my site visit on Tuesday. Pump station mound continues to shrink at a fair old rate, especially given Inert and Cemex are not deploying an armada of lorries. That revenue stream has dried up for the likes of John Stacey, Manor, J Mould et al. Inert appear, from my fleeting visits, to relying on their own heavy earth movers. I watched Inert painstaking build up this mound over many months, at an excruciatingly slow pace. This was caused by a curious method of operation. Given the large amount of space available for, say, maneuvering lorries, Inert chose to use a stretch of land not much wider than a lorry. This meant a lorry would cross the bailey bridge, reverse to the pump station, drop its load, then drive back over the bailey bridge. In turn, this meant that two lorries, at most, could be on Manor farm: one maneuvering to drop its load, and one waiting for the first lorry to finish. In turn, this would result in a lorry jam, of up to 10 lorries, queuing to cross the bailey bridge. I never understood why Inert didn't use the huge amount of land available to them and set up a circular route for the lorries, rather than using a single track. At least pump station mound is disappearing at a much faster rate than which it was built. There were two diggers, one bulldozer and two heavy earth movers in operation. I'm not sure I've ever seen this many heavy plant operating on the site before. I think the closest has been two diggers, a bulldozer and one heavy earth mover. Does this indicate that Inert and Cemex are really intent on completing restoration by next year? I hope so. And I know that the community surrounding the site will certainly hope they will be finally free of the noise, dust and disruption that they have endured for decades. Though to be fair to Cemex, gravel has to be dug up from somewhere; and this quarry probably provided much needed employment when it first opened. The last couple/three decades of the 20th century did see a lot of unemployment due to the collapse of traditional industries. Inert were working on two fronts. Firstly, their continued infill of the east side of what was Cormorant lake. A bulldozer was busily at work, shoveling tons of stuff into depressions to raise their height. Secondly, they have shifted some operation to what was Finch pond. A second digger was operating here, right up close to the west side of the copse. I understand that Inert were requested to refrain from working on what was Finch pond, as there were a lot of birds actually nesting there. When I first saw it, the digger was profiling the north east shore of the new, smaller Finch pond. Yes, I do reckon that the small piece of water that has taken up residence just west of the copse is the new Finch pond. And what a popular pond it is for birds - mainly because Cormorant lake is no more. What appears to be cheering about the new Finch pond is that quite a few scrapes (or mounds) have been designed into the pond. These prove very popular with birds; especially the big scrape in the former Cormorant lake. However, these mounds will be eroded away, unless some means in built into them to mitigate this e.g. a membrane. As I trekked over to the sewage works (trying to photograph Lapwings defending their fledglings against corvids and gulls, the digger had moved westward to the middle of the north shore of Finch pond. Here it began to excavate a long, thin section of water; more on this later parts of this update. I did notice that the Inert site manager was there. His presence might simply be coincidence or it might point to the whip being cracked to get on with the restoration. Who can tell. I've seen this before, Inert work like frenzy for a while before either flitting over to another part of the site or stopping work altogether. I might also have arrived at tea break. The bulldozer driver and the digger driver (operating on pump station mound) both hitched lifts in both heavy earth movers. They disappeared to Chandlers farm. I've long since suspected I turn up at tea break. On the other hand, they might have had to attend a team meeting. My sympathies, if that was the case. God, I used to hate team meetings. That's it for this slightly long winded post. Further posts, over the next few days, will detail the extent of the restoration that has occurred during my self imposed absence due to breeding birds. Inert continue to flatten pump station mound and use it to fill what little remains of Cormorant lake south. Slow but steady progress. They were using their heavy earth mover, when I paid a visit on Tuesday. I guess it is a lot cheaper than hiring tipper trucks and grab loaders. Curiously, the heavy earth mover continues the Inert tradition of reversing long distances. Rather puzzling considering the dryish weather we've been experiencing. Yes, it has rained, on and off, but more intermittent showers, which have done little to soften the ground. This was exemplified by the large amount of dust being kicked up the the heavy earth mover as it stormed up and down the south trackway. No slow, glacial pace I have seen them do when the area resembles a quagmire, and there are ruts 3 feet deep in the trackways. Thus, with acres of hard, compacted ground, I find it puzzling the driver choses to reverse so far. Practice, maybe. Oh, after all his smoothing of the south track way, last week, the ground (as I predicted) is beginning to be torn up. Not a dramatic amount, as the track way is still hard, firm and compacted, but little bits hear and there. Anyway, as the breeding season is drawing to an end, and certain birds can have migrated by now, I may (weather permitting) venture on to Manor farm to see how far Inert have progressed in their restoration. |
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November 2025
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