Aberlady Bay

Yesterday I made a second trip with Crafty Green Boyfriend as a volunteer assistant to help him test some wildlife recording tablets that haven't been working properly. (You can read about our previous trip to the Fife Coast here). Yesterday we visited Aberlady Bay Local Nature Reserve which is also a European Special Protection Area (SPA) for its waterbirds.

It was a lovely sunny day and we enjoyed hearing birds singing, including lots of skylarks and willow warblers. We saw quite a lot of birds on the water too, including a pair of pintails, which weren't close enough for my camera to capture!

One of the most distinctive feature of the area is the patchwork of pools in the grass by the shore

There are also a lot of shrubs and small trees that show by their shapes that the area is very windblown

and a wonderful little tunnel through the sea blackthorn

After our very long walk round the reserve we discovered a lovely cafe at Gosford Bothy, which has a wooded area for free range chickens

and a field of free range pigs

It's s just next door to Gosford House, which has a lovely wooded park and a walled garden. We'll need to go back another time to explore those though!