Encroaching on scrape, works building demolished and more. 27th Oct 2019

Yesterday morning was outright manky, overcast, dark and gloomy. Rain followed later on in the morning, and didn't stop until night time.  I declined to visit Manor farm. Instead I waited until today. Not only was it bright, we got an extra hour in bed due to the clocks going back. However, it was only 2 degrees centigrade, and I had to scrape ice from my car's windows.  The yukkie ice that sticks to glass like epoxy resin.

My midweek stomp revealed a dearth of lorries, depositing stuff. However, this was an illusion. Much has happened, even by Wednesday. Infill was now wrapping around the east side of the scrape, and heading northward.  Our intrepid bulldozer driver was flitting about all over Manor farm.

My Sunday walk, in misty conditions bordering on fog, revealed a whole mass of work has taken place. Though I cannot be certain exactly when some bits were done, as I have kept of the more muddy bits of infill. To recap what I sort of noticed, bearing in mind my proviso that one bit of churned up mud looks pretty much the same from week to week.

- There are signs that Inert have been working on what was Finch pond. It sort of looks flatter, and has fresh bulldozer and lorry tracks all over it. This is one way I tell where work has been done, how fresh and crisp the tracks are.

- That weird hole on the south side of my mighty mound, has been filled in and firmed up. I was quite relieved. I could now keep to the vehicle trackway, and not take a muddy detour around my mighty mound onto the land mass.  The terracing is still pronounced, and a raised trackway has been consolidated onto the land mass, leading up to the 'north' shore of Cormorant lake (south).

- I did see the bulldozer driver working on the 'north' shore of Cormorant lake on Wednesday, pushing stuff around and, occasionally, into the lake, before whizzing back down to work around the copse.

- The gravel spit, separating Cormorant lakes north and south, has had work done to it. I'm not sure exactly when, but definitely within the last couple of weeks.  I sort of spent most of last week concentrating on not sinking into mud as I worked my way across the land mass. Anyway, Inert have trundled to the east end of the gravel spit and pushed a whole load of spoil southward into Cormorant lake south. They might have done stuff in Cormorant lake north, but I didn't look this week.  I'll try next week if the weather is clement.

- By far the most dramatic work has taken place around the scrape and the feature I christened Cormorant spit. A considerable amount of infill has occurred around the east and south of this area, with some infill encroaching onto Cormorant spit.  I was able to negotiate my way along bulldozer tracks to step onto Cormorant spit, and walk along it onto the scrape; the bulldozed soil was unusually firm.

And there I was thinking the scrape would stay.  If by chance it does remain as a feature, its shores must be protected from erosion by water.  Plover island and Tern island in Colebrook lake, over in Moor Green lakes, have experience severe erosion, resulting in lose of eight feet or more of shore line.

In some ways the possible demise of Cormorant scrape and spit is a shame. Bird really like the gravel bars that appear when water levels are low. I have no idea why they are so popular. Even more so than the actual scrape.

- These were the most obvious changes around Manor farm. There are hints and signs that much other work has taken place, but it is slightly difficult to pin point on two short walks.

- Moving on to Chandlers farm. Some of the works buildings have been demolished! Actually two major buildings.  I do not pay much attention to Chandlers farm, therefore do not know precisely when the demolishing took place.  I suspect during May to July. I mentioned several times in this blog that I heard extensive noise, not unlike buildings being demolished, emanating from Chandlers farm.  Well, I now have the photographic proof.  Strangely, this puts the restoration of Chandlers farm slightly ahead of schedule, as I am sure this wasn't supposed to happen until the start of 2020.

I may or may not put some wildlife photos in.  There were four Roe deer, a large number of Greylag and Canada geese, plus some nice swans and teal. However, here are a couple of before and after photos of the works buildings on Chandlers farm.  I will replace the misty on I took this morning, with a clearer one. Hopefully this Wednesday.