Mass of Lapwings on Cormorant lake (south) 8th June 2019

A post title like that means only one thing: Inert are still concentrating on Chandlers farm. Further more, it was actually a little more 'lumpy' on Wednesday morning. Lots of lorry sized spoil heaps, dumped in the middle of the western side.

On the other hand, our stalwart pump is still chugging away, with a considerable flow of water from the two out flows; which should be a touch greater today due to the torrential rain we had all yesterday and through to the early morning of today.  It's been a long time since we've had such sustained rainfall or so heavy. It was hammering down at 2:00 am.  Pretty much like what has been happening during this week's SpringWatch.

The result of all this pumping is that water levels in Cormorant lake (south) have dropped considerably, revealing more of the scrape and its gravel bar - what I used to call Cormorant spit. I notice that the birds seem to prefer this long thinnish structure over the scrape. Designers of the reserve take note.

There were lots of Lapwing about. One of my photos has twelve of them on the scrape and spit. This points to them having a successful year, breeding wise. We should see flocks of a hundred or more come autumn/winter. Overall I saw more bird life on Cormorant lake than I have done in many months. This could simply be a fluke or might be due to the re-emergence of Cormorant spit.

I did start my stomp with a sighting of a Hobby.  There are some breeding pairs around the reserves, and I have seen them a couple of times. The one I saw was circling quite high above the footpath halfway between the MGLG car park and Colebrook hide.

With no restoration activity on Manor farm, we kick off with photos of the birds on Cormorant spit and scrape, plus three Lapwing on Manor lake (north).

We have an insect crisis of titanic proportions. The one statistic that stands out for me is this; when you drive in the countryside or trunk road (e.g. Motorway) you no longer have bugs splattered all over the car's bonnet or windscreen.  This is a pretty frightening thought. No bugs = no food = no wildlife; and possibly no us. A lot of plants are pollinated by bugs.

I do my tiny bit to help, with my chemical free garden. Even so, I notice a dearth of hoverflies, butterflies and ladybirds; amongst others.  Reserves like Moor Green Lakes, and proto reserves like Fleet Hill farm and Manor farm, help in a small way; if anything to simply provide wildlife corridors.

With that morbid thought, here are some photos of various more noticeable insects I photographed from various parts of the footpath running from MGLG car park to and along the Blackwater.

It seems to me that the Canada geese have had a really good breeding year.  Here is a large creche, feeding on the north bank of Colebrook lake (north).

Finally, for this weekend's update, the Hobby. Difficult to track with my camera/lens combo as it was quite high up and moving very fast.  Strangely, the birds on Colebrook lake (north) didn't seem overly concerned about this raptor flying over their lake. Maybe they didn't see it as it didn't hang around long.

Normally I see Hobbys flying close to the ground. Their favourite prey is dragonfly. No captions as such, simply the photo of the bird (either zoomed in near 300mm or 600mm) and then the heavily post processed cropped image. The latter is so you can see the bird rather than its silhouette.