The diggers are here! About a month late, but that was the wet summer's fault. We drained the lake right down and got rid of the last carp to Zeal Monachorum fishing club. Now Martin Bragg is scooping out all the silt from the bottom before reinforcing the dam and, in the process, creating a lot more shallow wetland for wildlife. Without the fish we should be able to establish more marginal plants and support more insects. I can't wait, as right now it looks really drastic.

Some of the plans have had to change - the field was simply too wet to put the excavated topsoil from the wetland where we wanted, and Martin has also had to cut a track right through to the clay to get anything with enough grip for his tractor to pull the dumper truck. Maybe we should ask him not to put that topsoil back - given time we'll get more wildflowers on the poorer subsoil than the fertilized ex-agricultural pasture.