10 of the best places to spot migratory birds in the UK

Autumn is a brilliant time to see birds arriving and heading off in their thousands. Spectacular movements can be seen all over the UK, but we choose 10 special spots

There have been signs of change in the air for a couple of weeks now. Birdsong has returned to gardens and parks after a few weeks of near silence. Starlings have been massing in my local south-east London supermarket car park – in a slightly Hitchcockian fashion – before finally mustering a respectable murmuration. I found it mesmerising, but fellow shoppers seemed not to notice.

The same week, on a warm mid-September day, a trip to Dungeness in south-east Kent, produced the wow factor of a vast flock of lapwings, climbing, turning and swooping, flashing black, white, silver and purple in the bright sunlight. Something is afoot.