RSPB Mersehead – Barnacle Geese on the Solway
A few hours.
The route
RSPB Mersehead runs from wet fields and a reedbed down to a long Solway beach, and in autumn and winter its fields fill with barnacle geese.
A wide trail leads out to two hides over the wetland, and a second path heads across the dunes to the sands. It's a peaceful, open place, and a fine one for a dog walk outside the nesting season.
The day
Mersehead
A winter walk out to the hides, with geese grazing the fields and the Solway shining beyond them. Bring binoculars and boots.
About three hoursAbout 2 miles on foot
RSPB Mersehead
RSPB Mersehead is on the Solway coast at Southwick, postcode DG2 8AH, with a small car park 20 metres from the visitor centre. The reserve is open at all hours and free to walk; parking is free for RSPB members and paid at the centre by everyone else. The centre has toilets, and hot drinks and snacks when it's staffed; the RSPB posts its opening hours a week ahead on the reserve's opening-times page, so check before going. In autumn and winter barnacle geese graze the wet fields in their thousands, and on some winter evenings starlings gather over the reedbed before they roost. The Wetland Trail is 2 miles in all, on a wide, firm path with two ramped hides along it, though the tracks to the hides are narrower and can be muddy. The Coastal Trail runs 2.5 miles over soft grass and sand to the beach and the mudflats, and high tides can cut it, so check the tide times first. Keep to the trails. From 1 April to 15 August keep dogs close, ideally on a short lead, for the birds nesting on the ground. There's no café, so bring a picnic for the tables outside the centre.
If it rains
The two hides give shelter once you're there, but the trails are open to the weather and the Solway wind. On a wet day, walk the Wetland Trail straight out to the hides and back.
Photographs by Nathan McNee and Katrina Glaister via Google