Curlew heaven

I decided to get out for some fresh air, exercise, wildlife and photography. The weather forecast said sunshine and light showers. I went up to one of my favourite moorland fringe haunts and took a slightly different direction from usual and almost immediately I was treated to the sight and sound of curlews overhead. I had stumbled into one of several territories where the summer population were raising young. A young bird was taking in the view from the hilltop, whilst the parents tried to distract my attention. I also got some nice sightings of skylarks, meadow pipits and mistle thrushes. After about half an hour, the rain clouds I had spotted approaching from the general direction of Manchester arrived overhead. I had expected the slow onset of a light shower, instead of which I got the sudden downpour of extremely heavy rain so I quickly packed up my gear and hot footed it firstly to the shelter of a tree, the back to the car. I waited for half an hour or so, but it was clear that this was not a short shower, so reluctantly, I headed homeward.