Infill/remodelling of Cormorant lake starts. 15th December 2018

No on site photos until tomorrow: Sunday. This morning it was overcast, dark, very cold, breezy and (the killer) sleeting. I decided against a site visit.

I did my usual Wednesday morning visit, when conditions were more benign.

Alas dear reader, I did it again. Sank up to my knees in mud while attempting to cross the causeway to the copse. I easily stepped over the small trickle of a stream in the middle of the causeway, straight into deep, gooey mud the consistency of quicksand. It was a bit of a struggle to haul myself out of the mud - not as bad as when I first did this some months ago. The mud didn't go as far up my knees.

I should have known better, but I noticed that some Roe deer had crossed the causeway. Their hooves did not appear to sink into the mud very much. Therefore I thought it was a lot firmer than it was.

Inert now appear to have switched their attention to the infilling Finch pond just north of the copse, and to landscaping and infilling the south shore of Cormorant lake. Tipper lorries were dumping their loads near the north west of the copse.  Interestingly, they were also dumping spoil near the yellow bridge.

Infilling of Finch pond appears to have now reached the first set of small 'islands' just north of the copse. I reckon (ha! famous last words) that Inert are doing their usual trick of building a causeway then infilling any resulting enclosed areas.

Our busy bulldozer was working away on the south shore of Cormorant lake, trimming the banking along its entire length, and landscaping a stretch from the middle to the west shore of the lake; levelling it and pushing soil into the lake.  On the immediate south west corner of Cormorant lake, the bulldozer continued last week's effort of extending the infill eastward.

There were two bulldozers on site during my Wednesday visit, only one working though. By Sunday, i could only see one. Though this was also the case last week.

There seems to be a big push on to complete this restoration. I remember work stopped on Manor farm round about November 2017 and didn't recommence until about April or May of this year. So far, Inert having been plugging away at Manor farm.  Presumably, there will be a week or two shut down during Christmas.

Interestingly, the pump didn't appear to pumping, on Wednesday. It was chugging away on my Sunday visit. Normally it is hard for me to tell on Wednesday if the pump is working. I'm some distance from it, keeping myself to the south footpath, and there tends to be quarry plant and local farm machinery making a fair amount of noise.

There was a fair amount of wildlife around, visible on both Wednesday and Sunday. The Widgeon appear to have returned, while on Sunday a large flock of Teal landed in Cormorant lake south. There were the usual flotillas of Teal and smatterings of Mallards et al. No big birds e.g. geese or swans.