The Pits A place still fit for dogs
Once a series of lakes teaming with wildlife that were left after quarrying had finished; Meriden Sandpits is now a strange mixture of landfill ground at different stages of being returned to a mono-culture desert that is modern agricultural land.
Building mountains of rubbish alongside the huge wounds we've dug into the earth to extract its sand & gravel seems a strange way to be going on.
One of the few remaining lakes at the publicly accessible side of this still working quarry — for the moment at least still attracts birds and clouds of dragonflies & damselflies. However, the gravelly beaches that provided nesting sites for inland Oyster Catchers 25 years ago have long gone & with them the Oyster Catchers themselves.
Oblivious to the changes that have been and gone & those yet planned — Mustard takes time out for some modelling work.
Burdock embarks on some quarrying of his own but on a more sustainable level it must be said.
Through the quarry's life cycle and transformation from agricultural land to barren and lifeless wounds in the earth: to becoming a lake, and then on to a newly created landfill site and eventually to its return to agriculture — there are stages that provide the perfect conditions for creatures to live.
Clouds of insects rise from the daisies and other plants that have rushed to colonise the 'new ground' as Burdock rushes through.
Not concerned with yesterday or tomorrow; Mustard is in many ways lucky and lives purely in the moment. Rock climbing or swimming supplement his other hobbies: eating and sleeping.
The cool, deep blue waters of the old quarry that still remain, are like a magnet to any spaniel worthy of the name. But for many other animals its existence is a matter of life or death.
To the left
Straight ahead
Life's a blur to the average springer though & perhaps it's just as well.
Lifeless, where not too many years ago was a lake that echoed to the sound of thousands of toads. At least in the evening the noisy machines that replaced the toads fall silent.
Looking out over what was, just a few years ago, a rapidly naturalising set of pools; rich in fish and countless other water dependent creatures, Burdock & Mustard’s thoughts are probably turning to what is on the menu for dinner.
But before we leave and the light fails completely there is just time for mum to get one last shot of Burdock for posterity. Or perhaps just for FB.
An exhausted quarry just across the road has been turned into a private nature reserve by the landowner. The story there is very different with the summer skies filled with dragonflies, its water's attract numerous birds including Peregrine Falcon that hunt the Peewits and gulls and Hobbies take dragonflies in spectacular style.
So perhaps not all is quite yet lost