The Patch before and after

As promised the before and after shots of the new Thacka Beck reserve, all the photos are taken from different angles and not necessarily from the same spot, but hopefully it will give you some idea of the work that went into transforming the area. 

The work took just over 12 months, and it was interesting listening to the various comments from people as they looked on. and believe me there was a lot of pessimists about, people couldn't see the potential, what a wast of money was one of the main opinions.

Once the earth had been rearranged and the water started to flood in, then the birds soon started to visit, but the problem soon became clear disturbance from dog walkers, some even to this day couldn't care less, and also kids who thought this was there new play ground. So the next priority was to get the area fenced, and now thankfully even that has been done.

So now more or less 12 months on and it looks  a totally different place.

All the bunds have green up nicely, water plants and vegetation has come on a treat.

Birds have bred here already.

And the list of birds visiting the area continues to grow, with some rare ones already on the list.

Later in the year the Long-horned Cattle are suppose to be arriving, to naturally graze the area, and the whole patch has been fenced in such a way, that the cattle can be rotated in different areas. So in the breeding season they will be moved away from the water area to a less sensitive area. So this area consists of one large meandering pond, and about 5 smaller ponds with Thacka beck flowing through the middle.
          Adjacent to this area is the settling pond, then about a quarter of a mile away is the Flash. Generally the Flash has more going on as it is too far away from any footpaths to be disturbed.
           All in all not a bad area, and as patchers we are all optimists, waiting for that something special to turn up, and hoping it will be on our patch.