Tarn Hows

We visited Tarn Hows as planned and had a lovely walk. It's only a couple of miles around, but took us way longer than it should have done as we kept stopping to take other little paths off the main one. Not many birds about today - one treecreeper, a mistle thrush, wrens and very friendly robins and four goosanders on the tarn(extras). But the views were magnificent in the sunshine. This panorama was taken on my phone from the viewpoint at the top. 

After eating our butties - who'd have thought it would have been warm enough for a picnic? - we decided to go to Coniston, but then took a wrong turning and quickly changed plans to try and see the starling murmuration at Leighton Moss. We arrived at just after 3pm and at 4.10 precisely they started to gather. We were obviously in the wrong place as, although I was thrilled to see thousands of birds swirling and making shapes in the sky for a few minutes right in front of us, the best viewing point seemed to be on the road over by the lower hide(which is still flooded). We left after there seemed to be no more movement, but as we drove along the road in the almost dark, we saw loads of cars parked on the roadside, many people with bins and cameras and of course a whole other murmuration going on at this end of the reserve. With nowhere left to park we had to drive past but I'm still really happy with what we saw. We will know for next time. A great end to a wonderful day.