More snazzy yellow sides fitted to Bailey bridge. 26th April 2019

The eagle eyed amongst you will notice that this update was written on a Friday. This means no Saturday stomp around Manor farm. Partly as the weather is expected to be foul tomorrow (storm Hannah is barrelling in), but mainly as not much has happened on Manor farm.

Plenty going on with Chandlers farm. I suspect that this is where Inert will concentrate their efforts over the coming couple of months due to the bird breeding season in full flow.

This week Inert appeared spread all over Chandlers farm, particularly the western half.  It is all looking decided flatter. A couple of bulldozers were clanking away, plus a couple of tipper trucks and diggers.

The Bailey bridge is now looking rather splendid with its snazzy yellow sides. I wonder if the sides will survive the heavy plant crossing the bridge during the remaining restoration of Manor farm.

With our hard working pump now silent, water levels in Cormorant lake and what is left of Finch pond edge ever higher. It's quite unusual seeing them so high.  I don't think they have yet reached their fullest. The pipe, which the gull type things love sitting on, is still on the mudflats. A couple more feet of water are needed to get it to float.

My old nemesis, the mud, is now dry and hard, and being churned into fine dust by all the plant chugging about.  It was being blown into dust clouds by the brisk wind.

I saw a vehicle moving eastward along the old south shore of Finch pond, whilst on the school run on Thursday morning. I thought that perhaps Inert had returned to Manor farm. My afternoon visit (I didn't do my normal Wednesday morning stomp as my car was in the garage being repaired) revealed this vehicle to be a water bowser.

What was really odd about this vehicle was how it filled its tank with water. Firstly, there is a pond on Chandlers farm. I have seen a water bowser filling up from it.  Secondly, it chugs over to Manor farm to fill up from Cormorant lake.  However, the it does so at the north end of the eastern infill!  This requires the bowser to reverse some 75 yards or so, along the east shore of Cormorant lake.

Most peculiar. Inert seem to like having vehicles reverse long distances.

Anyway, I didn't bother hoofing it all the way over to the Longwater entrance to see if Inert had filled in the tank assault course. I was too knackered after swimFit, plus by the looks of things, from the south footpath, nothing had been done as all the spoil heaps were still intact.

There is a surprising amount of wildlife around, considering it is the middle of the breeding season.  The Skylarks didn't seem as plentiful on Thursday. Possibly due to it being mid afternoon, and it was a tad breezy.

There were all sorts of intriguing rustling noises coming from the side of the path, during my walk. I couldn't tell if it were bird or mammal. Though I wish I could recognise bird song.  I do know quite a few, but there were a whole host of intriguing warbles I could not identify.

I think I might have discovered where another Oyster catcher pair are nesting. They appear to be on Sandpiper island, in Colebrook lake (south) on the Moor Green Lakes reserve. I did notice them flitting about this island earlier on in the year. But on Thursday, I managed to photograph an Oyster catcher landing on the west shore of the island.

Alas, there was too much vegetation to see if my hunch was true. The MGLG do not appear to have this island on its winter schedule.  Unlike Plover island, where I do have photographs of an Oyster catcher sitting on its nest.

I did, however, manage some splendid shots of the Oyster catcher coming into land. They are fast birds, and difficult to pick out from background noise. Only one photo came out completely in focus. The others were useful for action shots, if not detail.