Country diary: The annual spectacular of noisy, feathered visitors | Rob Schofield

Sefton, Southport: As the days lengthen, thousands of honking pink-footed geese arrive in England's north-west from Greenland, Iceland and NorwayThe echoing screech of swifts hurtling between the houses is a distant memory. Some swallows and martins have hung around, wittering away on telephone wires over the Cheshire Lines, or hunting flies above the salt marsh north of Southport's defunct pier. Our summer visitors have largely flown, but autumn has its magic. The recent harvest moon coincided with the annual spectacular provided by large numbers of noisy, feathered visitors.They arrive from breeding grounds in Greenland, Iceland and Norway. In dribs, drabs and then droves. Hundreds, sometimes thousands, of honking pink?footed geese flying in huge V formations. Passing overhead, their undercarriages lit by the low autumn sun, I notice the chaos, the constant movement from one line to another. Some disengage, change direction, loop back. At any moment, geese will be flying towards all points of the compass, but I trust them to know where they're going. In the mornings - in no rush - they travel inland to graze the fertile, peaty fields of the west Lancashire plain. At dusk they head the other way, seeking safety on marsh and mudflat. The RSPB Marshside and Martin Mere wetland centres are favoured spots, where those that don't move on to winter in Norfolk will be joined by large flocks of whooper swans and rare visitors such as ruddy shelduck and - such stuff as dreams are made on - Wilson's phalarope. Continue reading...