Inert return to Manor farm and build a white road. 31st Aug 2019

Inert appear to have returned to Manor farm to tackle the landscaping of Finch pond with a vengeance.

The infill of what was left of Finch pond continues, probably just grading and perhaps building in some features - see slide show for details.

Perhaps their most dramatic action is to cut into the east side of the north embankment alongside the ridge. A great huge chunk has been gouged out of it and pushed into Finch pond. Now part of me says that we will see the embankments being flattened over the next couple of weeks.  However, I have been here before. I know Inert flit about the site. Having started on the embankment this week, they may not touch it for months.

Anyway, what was particularly nice was that the embankments and ridge were shorn of nettles and thistles. Well, actually the west embankment was shorn, the north embankment and ridge had wide path ways cut through them. Interestingly, the 'backs' of the embankments (i.e. west edge of west embankment and north edge of north embankment) had also been cleared or at least flattened. This does tend to hint at their demise soon.

In any case, it sure made walking along the embankments and ridge a breeze this week.

There is still quite a considerable amount of inert stuff to be dumped on the site to complete landscaping. Particularly on the new north shore of Finch pond. A sinuous 'hill' is to be sculpted, with at least five and a half feet (say 1.5m) still to go.

Another dramatic feature, built by Inert, is to cover the trackway running along side the south shore of Cormorant lake (south) with compacted limestone or chalk, possibly with some ballast. This will provide a smooth surface for the various plant to traverse. Currently, they have a very bumpy drive, bouncing up and down, and having to drive slowly.

Will Inert manage to complete the restoration of Manor farm by the end of this year? Well, although I remain sceptical, they sure have gone at it hammer and tongs this past week with a view to doing so, perhaps.

A mid-week supplemental. I had taken a few photographs (mostly on my smart phone) on my Wednesday morning stomp; I was too lazy to take my bridge camera. Only I forgot to download the photos. My cheapo smart phone does surprisingly well. The only downside is that mobile phones have digital zoom, which is next to useless.

We can now see what activity occurred early (like before 8:30am) Wednesday morning.

I did notice that the floaty pipe, so beloved of gull type birds when water levels rise, has severed itself. Will it no longer float?

Unless otherwise stated, the following photographs were taken on my smart(ish) phone.

Now on to wildlife; was it a mass of plastic pollution I spied?

As I remarked earlier, my usual Saturday morning stomp didn't. Instead I wandered around Manor farm early evening of the Friday; as the gas man was coming on Saturday morning to service our boiler.

As such, the wildlife on view was not the normal mix I see. On a Saturday, the site tends to be full of roosting birds, most getting ready to go to various feeding grounds. Many of the birds had not returned on Friday evening.

There is quite a bit of pollution on Manor farm, mainly of the plastic variety. I have posted photographs of some of the stuff I have seen, particularly polystyrene beads in Finch pond. Thus, when I crested the ridge and stared into Cormorant lake (north) I saw its shores lined with white stuff, which I took to be polystyrene; lots of it.

Only when I looked closer at the photographs I'd taken, I realised that it was nothing more than a mass of white feathers. The closed nature of Cormorant lake (north) simply concentrated the feathers.  Looking at other photos of the area, I realised that the whole site is dotted with white feathers. I reckon that these feathers either come from moulting birds or were the downy linings for nests.