Country diary: A sense of communal unease on this warm autumn day | Phil Gates

Nose's Point, Durham coast: It's not just the sunflowers - planted to help seed-eating birds during the 'hungry gap' - that makes today feel more like ProvenceAfter a wet summer, T-shirt weather arrives in October. It's the kind of balmy end-of-season Saturday afternoon that seaside ice-cream vendors surely must pray for. The clifftop car parks are filling up fast. People are drawn to this stretch of coastline to breathe clean, salty air along the promenade, play on the beach, enjoy a spot of sea angling or appreciate panoramic sea views that stretch from Tyneside in the north to Cleveland's cliffs in the south. We've watched dolphins along this shore recently, but today there are none, only an inquisitive grey seal, surfacing close inshore. Sea glass collectors on Blast beach - heads down, searching for treasure - don't notice the watcher, who vanishes in a swirl of sparkling wavelets.We leave the throng behind and follow the cliff edge path towards Hawthorn Dene, hoping to see a local early autumn wildlife spectacle: vast flocks of goldfinches, feeding on wildflower seeds in the limestone grassland. We can hear their chatter, but don't see them until they are spooked by a jogger. Whoosh! At least 200 pairs of gold-barred wings take flight in communal panic. The flock rises and falls in unison, as if bouncing on air, wheels left then right, doubles back in our direction and streams in to settle on meadowsweet seedheads. These birds seem permanently exuberant; their excitement is infectious. Continue reading...