EuCAN Somerset Volunteers at Otterhead Lakes, nr Taunton

This was our fourth visit to Otterhead Lakes and we so nearly completed our task of clearing out the fallen laural and willow branches and trunks from the old leat. This manmade channel used to supply water to the water mill in the outbuildings of the large house that stood at Otterhead until its demolition in the 1950’s. It is now seriously silted up and VERY muddy!

Hauling out the rooted willows. Click to enlarge.

The next stage of this project by the Otterhead Lakes Trust is to bring in a digger to clear out the leat so that the water can flow. We saw frogspawn, a live Common Frog and plenty of signs of the Beaver family that has taken up residence in the lakes and surrounding woods. There were Primroses and Sn0wdrops in flower and plenty of birdsong – especially early this year.

Photos of the day are on this link on the EuCAN Flickr site.

clearing the jungle of laurel and willow from the former mill-leat.   click to enlarge