Hot, hot, hot,for one day only!?! 29th June 2019

With a blog post title like that, it can mean only one thing. Yep, no work on Manor farm.

A quick storm around early Thursday morning (too cloudy on Wednesday) revealed our periodic pump puffing away this week. Though only one of the out flow channels had water coming from it. I swear I arrive at the Bailey bridge round about break time.  It all tends to go quiet.

Talking of quiet, there wasn't the usual banging and crashing around the works building that usual accompanies my stomp around the footpath.  Needless to say, Chandlers farm looks ever flatter.

On the wildlife front.  There were all the usual suspects lurking around, with the scrape in Cormorant lake populated with hosts of, well, Cormorants (hence its name), along with the usual gaggle of Tufted duck, gulls and terns, Canada geese (who have had a particularly spectacular breeding season) and some Greylag geese.  These latter birds, on the east shore of Cormorant lake, got spooked by something and all headed for the safety of the water.

It was a bit early for insects to be out in force. There were, however, a fair number of Red Admiral butterfly around. Most were engaged in sunning themselves, trying to warm up.

As usual, well when I can remember, I pointed my camera at the owl box opposite Colebrook hide. I did manage to get a photo of an owl in the box. However, to 'see' the owl, I had to heavily process the image in FastStone. Even then, you can just discern a shape of what appears to be an owl.  I've deleted the photos, electing to wait until I get a sharper photo.

Finally, the 'hidden' side of Blackwater Valley Countryside Trust and the Moor Green lakes Group - remember them, the conservation group who maintain (with much gratefully received support from Cemex) the various reserves along the Blackwater.  I noticed that just south the footbridge near Colebrook hide, a new section of fencing had been put in.

I call it the hidden side, as the work parties are the more visible side to members and volunteers, as they join in to maintain parts of the reserve. This aspect gets good publicity on various media pages. But it is the on going, day to day stuff that tends not to be 'visible' or reported.

On to the small slide show. I like these short updates. They only take about 45 minutes or an hour; I do have to sort, process and shrink images, before up loading them and giving them captions.  A normal update tends to take two to four hours.