Odds & Sods 2023

That's interesting Angus. I've never seen them go along lines, although I do know they have excellent balancing skills ...

Thanks for the lovely comments. Glad you like the photos.

BD, great advice on Demoiselles. Will follow this Tuesday, if weather holds out and Demoiselles are around. Wokingham, just north-ish of Waitrose, has a power or telephone cable stretched across across the one way road. Grey squirrels can be seen using it to cross the road. We happen to have a lot of the blasted creatures around our neck of the woods, along with old fashioned power and telegraph cables. Thus, we see the blighters, scurrying along the cables quite frequently.

Now for something completely different. I bring you a rare and elusive bird.  I spent hours stalking the creature, using every available piece of foliage to conceal myself, and every last piece of tracking skills to creep up on it. I finally managed a photograph.

I bring you, never before seen imagery of a Blue backed American Rooster. 

Seriously...this maxi digger was working on the restoration of the Manor farm part of Cemex's Eversley quarry restoration. Much to the relief of us volunteers and the residents of the area.

The past two weeks have seen Inert hard at work landscaping, what I call, the Manor lake extension. Two weeks ago, this area was flat, and featureless, except for several piles of spoil. Starting two Tuesdays ago, Inert started landscaping this area with a digger and bulldozer, creating an intricate pattern of low lying wetlands.  This is a nature reserve being created before one's eyes. Sunrise, this morning.

Birds tend to flying the length of the nascent Longwater road nature reserve. You can get some fabulous BIF photographs. One of many flights of Canada geese, flying westward to feeding ground. There were loads of Egyptian geese doing likewise. Greylag geese and Brent geese are abound, with rather a lot of Lapwing.

I call the mound, in middle right of photo, Tufty mound.

One of the resident Kestrels, hunting over the middle of Manor farm restoration, which is now mostly given over to grassland. I only had my compact ancient digital camera, so its zoom wasn't brilliant. There were loads of Green Sandpipers, squawking around the area, taking exception to me wandering around recording restoration progress. Couldn't get a photograph of them, they move so fast.

Again, what was flat and featureless land a couple of weeks ago, has changed into this. Banking to left of photo built to separate Manor lake extension from the Main Reed beds, which are to left of photo. The water levels will hopefully rise in the coming weeks, as landscaping is completed and it is safe for deeper water i.e. no risk of heavy plant turning over into deep water and trapping operators.

These are reed fibers/roots/tubers/whatever that were been 'planted' last week. They should have been planted in spring, but there were last minute changes to the design of the site, causing a delay. Luckily for the reeds (and other plantings) we have had lots of rain, with no scorching heatwave.  Five years ago, Cemex had 8,000 saplings planted on the Fleet Hill farm part of the nascent Longwater road nature reserve. We then had aa long, long, long dry spell resulting in about 50% of the saplings dying. Many were replaced, but this does highlight a big problem with tree planting. Nobody considers the after planting care of them. They do need watering and tending to. Some many times you can see planted saplings dying off in their thousands.

The immediate foreground was landscaped this past week. This was an almighty mess, three weeks ago, resembling a building site, with mounds of spoil all over the place.

The maxi digger (it wasn't a mini digger and neither was it a full blown digger) was working along the tree line to the middle left of this photo. It was clearing plants and rubble from alongside the Blackwater valley footpath. We are finally getting clear views of the site. Previously there were banks of soil, and tall vegetation blocking views of the site, particularly in summer months when weeds would grow so tall.

Finally, this is west facing shot from atop of a huge mound of soil, that had appeared three weeks ago, and which I christened Crescent bank. I haven't got a clue what it is for. It isn't on any plans of the site I have gleaned from the Wokingham Borough Council planning website. It has appeared in the oddest of places, right between Manor lake and its extension.

I am hoping that this will become a viewing point, with either viewing screens and a hide built on it, as it would give superb views across the Manor farm restoration. I always found that being 15 to 20 feet high gave a wonderfully different perspective to a nature reserve.  The BIF potential from this location would be awesome.

Sadly, I've seen Inert do something like this many a time. They love building huge piles of spoil, and then knocking them down. What I'm standing on (which is about 10 feet high and 100 feet long) could be topsoil to cap the area; even though the Inert site foreman told me there were no plans to cap this part of the restoration.

These two seemed to be enjoying the aftermath of the heavy rain

Heron amongst the lilies at Virginia Water. There were plenty of fish

'There be dragons'. 

A few big boys were out basking in the sun 99% legged it before I got the chance to take a photo except this fellow, he went for the freeze option

Nice one Cin. They certainly do blend into the foliage ...