Aberlady Bay – Pink-footed Geese at Dusk and Dawn
A few hours.
The route
Every autumn great flocks of pink-footed geese arrive from Iceland, and up to 30,000 of them spend the night on Aberlady Bay, the UK's first local nature reserve, on the East Lothian coast.
They fly out to the fields at first light and come back at dusk in long, calling skeins across the sky. All it takes to see them is a warm coat and good timing.
Before you go
Book accommodation nearby
If you are staying over: here are ours nearest where the day starts and ends.
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The day
Aberlady
An hour or so on the edge of the bay as the light goes, or comes, with the geese passing overhead.
About an hour and a halfAbout 0.5 miles on foot
Aberlady Bay Local Nature Reserve
Aberlady Bay's small car park is just off the A198 east of Aberlady village, beside the long timber footbridge onto the reserve, with a small toilet next to it. It's one of East Lothian Council's coastal car parks, £3 a day at the time of writing from the machine or by RingGo, with no parking between 11pm and 4am. Up to 30,000 pink-footed geese roost here in autumn, arriving from mid-September and at their peak around October, before many move on south for the winter. They leave for the fields around sunrise and come back to roost around sunset. Sunset is about 6.10pm in mid-October, about 4.45pm once the clocks go back on 25 October, and about 4pm by mid-November; sunrise is about 7.40am, 7am and 7.45am on the same dates. Be here half an hour before either. Cross the footbridge and walk a short way along the main path, which is laid out to keep clear of the reserve's refuge areas, and wait with the bay in front of you. Stay on the path and give the birds room: if they lift, you're too close. Keep a dog close, on a lead near the birds. Bring a torch, a warm layer and binoculars; roe deer and redshank are often about too.
If it rains
There is no shelter on the reserve: in steady rain the geese still fly, but come in a waterproof or pick a drier evening.