Autumn is a time for nature's gems - richly-coloured leaves, nuts, berries and the last butterflies and dragonflies you'll see this year. It's also a time when there's lots of bird migration going on, all around you.
Everyone knows that swallows, swifts and ospreys migrate. Yesterday I was lucky enough to see some smaller migrant birds - but they were just as charismatic.
Goldcrests are common breeding birds in our woodland, especially pine forests. But did you know that 'ours' are joined by millions of others fleeing the cold winters of Scandinavia and eastern Europe?
I was at our beautiful Titchwell Marsh nature reserve on the north Norfolk coast yesterday. The freshwater and saltwater lagoons are great places for super-close views of lots of migrant birds - brent geese (from Siberia), golden plovers (from Iceland), and lots of ducks which have probably come here from Russia.
Migration often brings birds to unexpected places. High-pitched calls from the saltmarsh belonged to goldcrests, which had just crossed the North Sea. These are Europe's smallest birds - they weigh about the same as five or six paperclips! And seeing them out of place, so far from their woodland habitat, was a special moment.
(Check out this snap from Spurn Point, on Yorkshire's east coast! A pile of goldcrests snuggling up for a cold night.)