Chandlers farm goes lumpy. 7th July 2019

Needless to say, with a post title like that it is still quiet on Manor farm. Even our periodic pump paused puffing - though water levels were lower than of late.

Chandlers farm getting lumpy again is in keeping with how this restoration lark appears to go. Loads of spoil are dumped in heaps, dotted about a site. They are then bulldozed into lakes and ponds, to make something reasonably flat. Then, either more spoil is dumped into dirty great big heaps or huge areas of flat infill are gouged out and pushed into a lake or pond.

No one appears to know what is going on or when the restoration is to be completed. Even less is know about après completion.

We'll kick off our small slide show with some panoramic views of Chandlers farm from the south end of the bailey bridge.

Now onto wild life shots. There was a lot of it about, as they say, particularly on Cormorant lake.  Favourite areas being the scrap, attached gravel bars, plus the mud flats and land mass (aka previous infill) on the north shores of Cormorant lake south.  I'm not sure about Cormorant lake north, as I have been keeping off Manor farm due to the breeding season.

In addition to the birds, there were a plethora of insects, particularly dragonflies and various damselflies. Butterflies were strangely light in the air (as it were), unlike previous weeks when I spied numerous Red Admiral.

Given the large number of nettles with Peacock butterfly caterpillars on them, I hope so see quite a few of these colourful insects in a month's time. Not many photos this week, even though there was plenty to see.

A highlight for me was photographing a barn owl peeking out of its nest box on the north shore of Colebrook lake. I normally point my camera at the box in the hope of spotting something, which I did last week but it was too grainy and indistinct to call an owl. This week, however, the owl did not disappoint.

Bear in mind the nest box was well over 100m away.