Pump station bridge demolished. 6-Jan-2018

Cemex (or should I say the Inert Recycling company) have started the new year with a vengeance. They have demolished the bridge near the pump station. Its remains are still on the site, awaiting removal. They also appear to have brought in an awful lot of soil. No idea if it is going to be new top soil for the area that used to hold the bridge, or whether it is to be bulldozed into Manor lake.

Our bulldozer man has been hard at work around the copse area and the south shore of Finch pond; pushing ever more soil into the water and creating new land.  I believe Finch pond is supposed to shrink in size quite drastically, and become mainly reed beds.

The pump has been turned back on again. I reckon water levels in the lakes are about at their maximum now, which makes for interesting working conditions near the shore lines.  No doubts Cormorant island will make a reappearance, and hopefully Cormorant spit.

I didn't put the trail cam out. The Blackwater river was running high with all the rain we have had recently. It makes for a tricky leap over three feet deep water to get to the tree trunk I place the camera on, and most of the animals will stay shy of the area until water levels fall.

You might find the photos a little odd this week. Firstly I was experimenting with white balance. I set it to fluorescent. This made the photos overly blue, and making the gloomy, overcast, misty morning (it was 8.00am) even more so.  Although the setting did portray the atmosphere quite well, I think it overdid it a bit, and a lot of detail was lost because of the colouration.

I edited some of the photos with Firestone.  Bear in that this is the second time I have used Firestone to try and correct photos, it was the first time trying to correct the colour and I don't really know what I am doing. I took the time honoured approach of playing with the controls to see what happens.

It gave many of the photos a quality of being from the early years of the last century or of black and white photos that have been colourised.  In some ways it is quite an interesting affect.

Reasonably large number of photos this week. So you'll need to open the slideshow to see them all.

I am actually quite pleased with the photo of the geese. Lousy light conditions. White balance set to fluorescent. Geese a little blurry due to me I tracking them in the mist and low light. But it seems to work.

As for the welly shot; told you it was muddy, and this was a shallow mud puddle.