The arrival of the first of the autumn geese as they flight their way in from their northern breeding grounds can be an occasion tinged with mixed emotions, given that it is a sure sign that the summer is well and truly over and winter is on the doorstep.

But such regrets should only be fleeting, for winter is one of the most exciting periods in the Fife wildlife calendar and the stars of the season are most definitely the geese. Fife is a hotspot for geese, with the rich farmland combined with coastal mudflats and sandbanks providing excellent feeding and roosting places.

The two commonest species found in the Kingdom are the greylag and pink-footed goose. Both are widespread and can turn up pretty much anywhere, although the largest flocks tend to congregate in the centre, north and east of Fife. Cameron reservoir is notable for its large flocks of pink-feets – 6,000 birds is not unusual – and large congregations also occur around the Eden Estuary, Tentsmuir Point, Birnie Loch, Gaddon Loch and Kincardine.

Greylags tend to be a bit more widely spread, especially in West Fife, where Lochgelly, Craigluscar reservoir, Loch Glow and Torry Bay are frequent roosting sites. In the east, Kilconquhar reservoir and the Eden estuary are favoured. The birds use these freshwater and coastal roosts for safety and protection, and I remember once on a foggy winter’s evening at Craigluscar hearing a flock of greylags coming into land but which couldn’t see the ground because of the pea-soup mist. They kept on circling low overhead, their constant honking almost panic-ridden in undertone, as they desperately tried to keep together in very difficult flying conditions.

Loch Leven, in neighbouring Kinross, attracts huge numbers of greylags and pink-feets, and each morning they will move out from their roosts to feed widely over the surrounding Fife farmland. Geese are formidable grazers, feeding on stubble, pasture and winter-sown crops, often bringing them into conflict with farmers.

Greylags and pink-feets are quite hard to tell apart, especially from a distance. The pink-foot is marginally smaller and has a darker head and less prominent beak than the greylag. The call is also different, with that of the greylag akin to the honking of a farmyard goose whilst the pink-foot is more of a higher pitched cackle.

Two other grey geese, the bean goose and the white-fronted goose also occur in Fife during the winter. Both are very scarce, although a few white-fronts occur annually in the area around Cameron reservoir and the Eden estuary. The bean goose is even more sporadic and in some years there are no records for Fife at all.

If you are lucky, you may spot one of the types of black goose that visit the Kingdom. In autumn, varying numbers of barnacle geese on passage will pass briefly through on their way to their wintering grounds in the Solway Firth and Ireland. The barnacle is a dainty little goose and is most likely to be seen in the East Neuk as they make their first landfall after migrating from Svalbard in the high Arctic of northern Norway.

The brent goose, which is much more of a maritime bird compared with our other goose species, occurs annually in small numbers, with east Fife again being the favoured location, particularly the Eden Estuary and Tentsmuir. However, there is always a chance of finding one or two of these birds at Largo Bay, and at Torryburn and Valleyfield in the far west.

Another black goose that occurs here is the Canada goose - an introduced and rather unwelcome bird from North America that is a sporadic winter visitor and passage migrant to Fife. The Canada goose breeds in nearby Perthshire and south-east of Scotland, and it is surely only a matter of time before it becomes a regular nester in Fife.

One of the best places to see geese in the Fife area is at RSPB Scotland’s Vane Farm Nature Reserve on the southern shore of Loch Leven. According to the RSPB’s Colin Shaw, dusk and dawn are the best times to see large numbers of flighting greylag and pink-footed geese, as well as many other types of wildfowl. The visitor centre is open between 10am to 5pm. Tel: 01577 862355 for more information.