Wildlife

At first sight, you are surrounded by open farmland and a huge dune system stretching off into the distance. Nothing much to see apart from a few rabbits and birds. But if you look and listen carefully, Rattray Head comes to life and you realise you are engulfed by nature.

The sounds vary depending on the time of year, and the time of day.

Spring at Rattray Head is the bunny season like no other place. The fields and dunes are swarming with tiny rabbits eagerly exploring the open spaces. They sit in the lane wondering what on earth that big noisy four-wheeled box is that's getting bigger and noisier as it approaches, before that final panic and dusty scurry into their hole.

Summer months may find you listening to the wolf-like howling of grey seals basking on the rocks at low tide. On calm days, the song of these seawolves carries a long way inland across the fields, and can even be heard indoors.

Autumn and winter air carries the distinctive honking chorus of tens of thousands of pinkfoot geese that stay here on a break from the harsher winters further north. Also keep an eye out for the migrating elephants, some of whom overwinter here and others who continue further south for even warmer winter breaks down in England.