As summer sings its swan song, these incredible images show autumn's on the way as far as nature's concerned.
Clouds of waders swirl above the water as the tide turns in The Wash.
RSPB public affairs manager Steve Rowland photographed the spectacle from the conservation group's reserve at Snettisham, near King's Lynn.
He said: 'I've popping down to the reserve at Snettisham for twenty years now and never tire of the spectacle, great now as autumn is starting to happen with the shorebirds returning from their Arctic breeding grounds to either stage on the Wash before heading further south or to spend the winter with us.'
Numbers of wading birds such as knot and godwit on the estuary increase rapidly as summer gives way to autumn. They feed in great flocks along the shore, rising up when displaced by the tide or spooked by a predator like a falcon or harrier.
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