Martin Mere

We don't seem to have had a sunny day coinciding with a weekend for absolutely ages. Drabness and damp have been the order of the day.

But today the forecast was good, so we decided on a trip to Martin Mere. Thousands of pink footed geese and good numbers of whooper swans are down from their summer homes in the Arctic (extras), along with large numbers of wigeon - I love their whistling calls.

But my main blip is a bit of autumn colour. The silver birches were glowing in the sunshine, below them tree sparrows - the house sparrow's very handsome cousin - were chirping away around their nest box homes.