Work switches to north shore of copse. 24th November 2018

To paraphrase the song by Traffic: 'The hole in my wellie was letting in water...' I fear my right wellington has given up the ghost, developing a small, but annoying leak in it.  The wellies have taken a bit of a beating, partially from my stomping antics around the restoration (well, more sliding down slopes of spoil) and partially from encountering sharp objects (e.g. thorns, twigs, etc) whilst volunteering with Moor Green Lakes Group.

They're still good enough for general stomping - just not in anything wet.

Enough of my wellie woes. On to this week's scintillating instalment in the restoration saga.

Last Saturday, I noticed the the bulldozer was missing from Manor farm. Not an unusual occurrence. My Wednesday reconnoitre revealed its continuing absence, and a dirty great lorry tyre placed across the vehicle trackway near the copse, thus indicating that no work took place on Finch pond west of the copse.

Two diggers had taken the place of the bulldozer and were both working on the east shore of Finch pond - basically a small bit north of the copse.  They were being supplied by a small number of lorries, and dumping the spoil into Finch pond.  This is quite a slow process, compared to the rate at which the bulldozer works at.

Lorry traffic has been subdued somewhat since the heady days of seeing up to 20 or more trundling around the site. Their number appears to have dropped to no more than about half a dozen; perhaps reflecting the new target completion date of the end of next year.

I took the opportunity to photograph the restoration from locations I have been keeping clear of during the breeding season. Thus, I now have comparative shots from the channel between Finch pond (well, what little is left of it) and Cormorant lake; and from the former location of the yellow bridge.

I noticed the pump had stopped chugging on Wednesday. Has someone forgotten to top up the diesel? In any case, water levels were on the rise again, preventing me from hopping across the causeway next to the copse. I never know if the pump stopping is intentional or not.

Now on to the Q Bays. I have no idea what these are all about. My bafflement increases daily. This week I notice a pile of spoil had been dumped into Q Bay 2.  Huh?  The bays aren't exactly big. They would hold an insignificant amount of spoil.  All dead mystifying.

Finally, wildlife or lack thereof. The whole site was remarkable bereft of wild life - particularly of the quacking and honking variety. Numbers of birds have been declining of late, possibly due to them flying to their winter grounds, but it was remarkably empty on Saturday.  Which is just as well as the weather was particularly dank and murky, with my other nemesis rearing its head - rain.

Oh, I did manage this shot of a Red Kite, flying around the site on Wednesday. I was quite surprised how well the image came out. I had my cheap Tamron lens at its maximum 300mm. This normally equates to soft images.  There wasn't much else around on Wednesday - though this is not unusual, as most birds had gone to their feeding grounds by the time I get around to visiting the site round about mid morning.