Spotted any Painted Ladies? 4th August 2019

Still all quiet on the northern front. With our valiant pump firmly off, and lots of rain (it is pouring as I type) water levels are approaching their normal levels on Manor farm. It wont be long before the pipe, in Cormorant lake (south) starts floating - much to the joy of the gull type birds.

Chandlers farm was relatively quiet, when I turned up at about 9:30am on Wednesday. I really do reckon I turn up at break time - be aware that the men and women on the site start very early in the morning.  I did note one tipper dropping stuff off on the west side of Chandlers farm.  I really need to get a photo of the amount of stuff that has been dumped. If a bulk of this inert material is stock piled for Manor farm then we could see the restoration almost completed by the end of the year.

Now, dear reader, summat important. Details of the week long Blackwater valley river festival are firming up. An awful lot of effort is being expended by various volunteers in preparing for this extravaganza e.g. last week I bumped into four volunteers who were surveying Moor Green Lakes in preparation for the open day walk.

Details of the events can be found here http://www.bvct.org.uk/brf19/. Keep checking as they are being updated on a daily basis.

I will be volunteering on Sept 29th at the Moor Green Lakes open day walk. Pop along if you want to meet the loony of this blog. Perhaps fill me in on other restoration matters I may have missed.

There is supposed to have been an influx of Painted Lady butterflies. Could have fooled me. Despite searching high and low and keeping a vigilant look out, I have only spotted one. A gardener at the Royal Botanical Gardens, Edinburgh, claims to see hundreds if not thousands per day. Hmmm, maybe with all this Brexit nonsense the butterflies have bypassed England.

On with the slide show, which will consist mainly of wildlife photos. We'll start with some shots of Cormorant lake (south) to show how much water levels have risen and the extent of greening that occurs so quickly after restoration.

This wildlife section has photos from a number of locations, some from Manor farm and Moor Green Lakes, the bulk from a 10 mile walk the memsahib and I did along the Basingstoke canal, and a couple taken from a garden: notably the only Painted Lady I have seen all summer; despite this alleged influx.

I've also confirmed that my monopod (and, as it turns out, the wooden slats on the various viewing screens) resonate with the optical stabilisation of my Sigma 150-600mm lens. Switching to using a proper (though cheap) tripod, and 'Fine detail' setting on my camera, produced stunning results. I have ditched the monopod for the time being.