One man and his dozer. Plus Alpaca. 10th November 2017

Well, that's not strictly true.  There is a supporting cast of other vehicles as this blog has shown, but I think there is only one Bulldozer.

The eagle eyed among will notice that the 10th Nov 2017 is a Friday. Not our usual weekend tromp.  I had the day off work, and decided to walk around the reserve, partly as it was sunny but mainly as heavy rain was forecast for Saturday, while on Sunday we would be helping out with the Moor Green Lake Group clearing scrub from Plover island and trying to make a scrape for the ground nesting birds.

There is no change to the order of running this week.  Cemex continue to work on Manor Farm, and the pump keeps pumping.

As it was a Friday, I caught the chaps working on the reserve. Well, actually I didn't catch them working as it was lunchtime, so their vehicles were parked up as they went for grub.  The Cappagh vehicle suggests that Cemex have employed Cappagh to do some if not all of the restoration.  Makes sense really.  Cemex is good at extracting stuff out of the ground.  Cappagh is good at industrial reclamation and restoration.

With all the heavy plant trundling around the reserve, I thought it best to keep to the safety of the footpaths.

Water levels in the various Manor lakes continue to drop, helped by the continuing dry weather. I only just realised that there are a whole load of dead trees poking out of the water of the lake north of Manor lake - what is to become the reed beds.  This suggests that water levels were even lower in these lakes, possibly quite dried out, as the trees (now quite dead) were several years old.

There is no doubt now that Cemex are clearing the north shores of Finch pond and Cormorant lake, and the area between the two. We tend not to see much of this area from the South footpath.  It was, however, very much evident on Friday.

The bird watcher I spoke to last week said that in a week or so the lakes on Moor Green Lakes would be heaving with wild fowl.  This was very much the case this week, and I would expect even more birds to arrive.

Finally, I think I managed to get a photo of a Little Grebe on Lower pond of Fleet Hill Farm. They are very elusive, diving under the water at the slightest sign of humans.  The little Grebe was quite close when I wandered up to lower lake, but took off to the other side of the pond at my appearance. 

Finally, finally. The leaves have dropped from trees for the Alpaca to be more visible.