Cormorant lake c'est mort. Vive la Cormorant lake. Part 2. Finch pond complex.11th July 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.