I was lying on my back in a park this weekend looking up to the heavens when my field of vision was filled with swallows and house martins.   Maybe I was on my back because my boy had just nutmegged me at football, maybe I wanted some late summer sun on my face or maybe I was day-dreaming about taking a sea kayak down the River Tay next year to witness the spectacle of thousands of Hirundae sweeping past me (I was with our Eastern Scotland team last week).

Whatever the cause of my langorousness, it made me think about the summer that's becoming a memory and the season ahead.

It is easy to get a little maudlin about the end of summer: migrants you take for granted for four months push off back to Africa and the long haul of winter awaits.    But this year feels a bit different.  For the first time in years we seem to have had a decent summer and I am hopeful that this has helped breeding success of some species particularly those vulnerable to the weather such as some of our insects and those birds that eat them.  End of season breeding records will confirm one way or another but for now, I've sensed that this has been a season to aid nature's revival.

And I am determined to retain my optimism.  So, if you are anxious about the loss of migrants, of the sun losing its warmth or of the nights drawing in, here are five things to look forward to this autumn...

1. Dust off your Roger Phillips' guide to mushrooms and fungi.  The flowers may be fading, but now is the time to work on your fungi identification.  The one below (yes, the thing in the middle) has stumped me a bit and so would welcome any suggestions from mycologists out there. 

2. The geese are coming.  Pink-footed geese have started to arrive from the north and others are on the way to create some wildfowl spectaculars.  With my daughter's permission, I will plan my birthday trip to RSPB Snettisham.

3. The rutting season is just round the corner.  Whether you are in Richmond Park or in Rum, it's always worth being around red deer when the stags start competing for control of groups of hinds.

4. Waxwings could turn up near you.  Whether in a car park in Ipswich or in the snowy landscape of the Aln valley, this is one of my favourite species and it is the bird that is guaranteed to get RSPB staff out of their seats if one turns up at the Lodge.

5. There are only 235 days until 1 May. Even if the above does not excite, May will come again, I promise.

I hope you have fond memories of this summer and here's to a great autumn 2013...