It was a small group of House Martins over the Cathedral Close which alerted me to their going. Last Sunday a similar group was hawking for insects over the village. By Tuesday they had gone. Now all I expect to see is the occasional laggard – perhaps just passing through from a northern summer.

Perhaps the superb full moon on Monday night was the trigger.  I am told that the same moon drew in the wintering Pink-Footed Geese to the North Norfolk Coast. This is the time of change – the overlap between fleeing summer visitors and the winter arrivals.