I love the arrival of our over-wintering geese in September and October. It's so moving and awe-inspiring to watch their noisy skeins travel across skies illuminated by the light of the sun's low autumn arc. I have a few places where I go to watch them - Montrose Basin, Loch Leven in Kinross-shire and closer to home, Aberlady Bay in East Lothian. On a recent trip to the latter, I packed a friend and overnight camping kit to spend a night out on a goose watch at the bay.
A short bus ride from home dropped us at Aberlady Bay late afternoon where there were already large numbers of pink-footed geese on the mudflats. It's generally pink-footed geese that form the huge skeins that fill the air with their "wink-wink" calls. There was also the usual assortment of ducks and waders.
We wandered across grasslands brightened by the orange berries of sea buckthorn, also known as the baked bean plant. A scramble over the dunes put us on the deserted beach for a wander to the rocks at Gullane Point. The tide was out but the sea filled the air with an ever- present roar, a reminder, like the geese, of the primal forces at play around us. The view is extensive from the point. Back to Edinburgh and the Pentlands; across to Fife and the Lomonds; and the spans of the three Forth Bridges can just be spotted in the far distance.
We turned our backs on the beach and ambled through the dunes and the scrub beyond. Faint paths meander through here though it never seems possible to follow one for very long before it peters out. Eventually we came by chance upon the old tank defences that date from the second world war. These concrete blocks are littered along the coast but the ones here are so hidden that they always make me feel like I have stumbled upon a local Machu Picchu.
We wandered aimlessly as the light was fading and eventually found a secretive hollow with flat ground, perfect for pitching the tents. I'm not sure how we came across it but I am sure we'd never find it again, such is the nature of the landscape here.
A beautiful sunset followed with the grasses of the dunes alight in soft golden shades. Skeins of geese came in above our tents as the light faded and day turned to night but it was the morning that brought the spectacle of thousands of geese taking to the air above the bay. We watched quietly for a couple of hours then took flight ourselves to Gullane for coffee and cake at a favourite cafe, Goose on the Green.
Fact File
Route: From the bus stop, we walked east along the pavement adjacent to the main coast road which has good views over the bay and takes you to the wooden bridge that you need to cross to get over the outflow of the Peffer Burn. The main path to the beach is obvious from here. The paths back through the dunes are indistinct. After watching the geese at Aberlady Bay in the morning, we continued east along the pavement adjacent to the main road. This is actually the John Muir Way and it soon leaves the roadside to continue to Gullane across fields. This gave good views of geese flying out over the fields.