Frosty, clear, but no restoration activity 10th February 2018

As you can probably tell from the title of this post, dear reader, I could detect no discernible signs of restoration on the Manor farm part of the reserve.  This is not unusual as Cemex/Inert flit about all over the site from week to week.  I would not be surprised if they were hard at work on the Hampshire part of the reserve.  There is a lot of work to be done there.

Water levels in the lakes on both Fleet Hill farm and Manor farm have dropped by at least a foot (30cm) if not more.  Plenty of dry weather over the past week helped, but heavy rain is forecast for next week, if the weatherman is to be believed.

Walking along the south shores of Cormorant lake and Finch pond was a mixed joy this morning. With temperatures hovering around minus 3 degrees centigrade the ground was quite frozen. This mean't no sinking into mud or having to check its depth.  On the other hand, with the ground so churned up by heavy plant, it was uncomfortably hard when walking in wellingtons.

Another blessing with a drier ground was that animal foot prints were frozen (literally) in the mud, and the vehicle track ways are covered in them.  Mainly Roe deer and the various geese who frequent the site, along with many Fox tracks.

I have decided I need a more modern trail camera.  My ancient steam powered jobbie has a video resolution of 640x480.  Yep, the old VGA standard.  Ahhh, those were the days.  I noticed a modern sub £50 trail camera for sale with a video resolution of 1920 x 1080. I feel I should raid the piggy bank and purchase said camera.

In it's defense, my old trail camera has picked up some nice shots: lots of blackbirds fighting over the patch my camera points over; Great tit; Redwings; lots of shots of a brown rat feeding at night; and a Siskin!