Not a cloud of midges

There's a bit of a starling theme this week.  I returned to the same location as Sunday, this time with Caroline, who was keen to see the murmuration against the piel tower backdrop.  We were lucky as there was enough thin cloud on the western horizon to produce some sunset colours.  The starlings were also closer to us as they rose above the skyline, so in this photo they look distinctly like birds rather than a particularly unpleasant cloud of Scottish midges.  They are also mostly above the skyline, so there is more definition in the piel tower and trees.

In the event, the aerobatic performance was less enduring than the sunset colours.  They soon dipped below the skyline and began the shifting and lifting process of settling into the reedbeds, largely out of sight to the camera.  It struck me listening to the cacophony of wings and voices, that the tens of thousands of wings beating sounded like waves breaking on a sandy shore rather than as wind gusting as I previously described them.  But words, or my words, always fail to do justice to the experience of seeing and hearing such a massive flock.

We had a good day, we walked to the front in the morning for a coffee, saw the Arnside Bore again, and we spoke to Matt on his 25th birthday (and his brother Stephen who is staying with him for a few nights).  I pruned the apple trees, and C painted part of the kitchen.  Gus has been on good form all day.  And we topped off the day with Arnside Fish & Chips for tea.