More of same, near flooding, Great Egret spotted. 16th November 2019

With torrential rain on Wednesday falling on already saturated ground, the Blackwater was almost bank full in places.  A few more inches and there would have been flooding on parts of the south footpath. Note it is possible that the Blackwater burst its banks on Fleet Hill farm - it does so - and on bits of the south footpath I didn't walk along.

I put a trail cam out on a tree that had fallen into the Blackwater, near the Longwater road. When I put it out, Saturday week, it was a good 2 feet (60cm) above water levels. It was completely submerged when I tried to retrieve it on Thursday morning. Much to my total astonishment, the unit was still working (when I  managed to get to it yesterday morning) even after water poured out of its battery compartment and SD card slot when I opened it up.  Extraordinary!  It is a cheap Crenova unit, costing all of £68.

Anyway, enough prattling on about flooding and trail cams. What have Inert been up to this week?

It is a bit tricky to tell. Due to my ancient car being serviced and MOT'd on Wednesday, I had to postpone my mid-week visit until Thursday morning. Inert were busy around the west shore of Cormorant lake and my mighty mound.

They had moved the boulder sorter outer to near the south footpath, next to my mighty mound. A small fleet of John Stacey lorries were queuing up to drop their loads next to the boulder sorter outer. I counted at least five John Stacey lorries - there could have been more, plus lorries from other companies, but I didn't hang around long to find out.

Our bulldozer driver was pushing stuff around the various parts of what will be Manor lake. I didn't really walk along to the scrape to find out how much had been pushed into Cormorant lake. Due in part to laziness, still being ill with a filthy, rotten, stinking cold; and partly as I wanted to get over to Moor Green Lakes to photograph it in the early morning sun.

I can say that the south shores of Cormorant lake are looking a little flatter, which is normal procedure.  The piles of bricks and concrete, which I saw last week, appear to have been laid into a track, stretching from the south footpath to the middle of the land mass, where the boulder sorter outer was last week.  By Saturday, this piece of plant had been moved back on to the land mass where it was last week.  At least the other plant and personnel will have a firm track to drive/walk along.

After a couple of week's hiatus, the pump was back on - not leaking by the looks of thing. It is sorely needed, with all this rain about.  Water levels have crept up quickly over the past week.

That's it, I'm afraid. More of same, slowly nibbling away at the infill of Cormorant lake, with nothing seemingly dramatic happening. This means the slide show is fairly short and, in complete contrast to last week's fog, a glorious technicolour scene which you get on an early autumn's morning.

What was dramatic, was I spotted a Great White Egret (aka Common Egret or Great Egret) over on Moor Green Lakes. No doubt this bird also partook of the reeds and rushes of the various lakes and ponds on Manor Farm and Fleet Hill Farm.  Quite exciting as this is quite a rare species to spot in the UK.  Sightings are getting more frequent, but still rare.  There are reckoned to be about 35 birds over wintering in the UK, but this is a very broad estimate.

 
Now on to our rare visitor - The Great White Egret.  This bird was stooging around the north shore of Colebrook lake (north) in Moor Green Lakes.  Unfortunately, two minutes before I got to where I saw this bird, the early morning sun was covered by a finger of cloud. The whole lake went from glorious sunshine to instant gloom.  Photography matters were not helped by the bird being about 100m from me, with the added bonus of a slight amount of mist.  Still, the old Sigma 150-600mm contemporary and fence post/viewing screen board did a sterling job.