Goose autumn at the Lange Lacke, Seewinkel
Greylag, white-fronted and bean geese (up to 35,000), cranes on passage, golden plover, ruff; wintering white-tailed and imperial eagles. Nationalpark Neusiedler See – Seewinkel, Burgenland, Austria.
Best time: 20 Oct – 10 Dec (October to December). Where: Lange Lacke and Wörthenlacken (Apetlon), Nationalpark Informationszentrum Illmitz, Zicklacke and Illmitzer Zicksee (Austria). Time of day: Geese leave the soda-lake roosts from 45 min before sunrise to 30 min after.
- You can go on your own
- Free
- Binoculars helpful
- Sound 5/5
Open it in the interactive calendarSunrise and sunset listening times for the day you pick, and the map.
When is the best time?
Peak: 20 Oct – 10 Dec. 20 October to 10 December ('Gänsestrich' evenings)
Active from 1 Oct to 28 Feb (October to February) in a typical year.
Time of day
Geese leave the soda-lake roosts from 45 min before sunrise to 30 min after; the return skeins from an hour before sunset until dark, when the wind usually drops; greylag chatter on the roost all night.
- Dawn departure: 45 min before sunrise → 30 min after sunrise
- Evening return: 1 h before sunset → 30 min after last light
What will you hear?
Geese in skeins of thousands crossing the pastures at dusk, greylag chatter on the soda lake roost through the night, cranes trumpeting overhead in late October, eagle calls; the salt-steppe silence in between.
Binoculars?
Binoculars helpful. Skeins cross low over the dyke at dusk; binoculars from the hides for the roost and eagles on the soda lake.
Where to go
- Lange Lacke and Wörthenlacken (Apetlon) — Largest soda lake; circular trail on the dyke, roosting geese, hides. Core zone beyond the path. Map
- Nationalpark Informationszentrum Illmitz — Start point; ranger tours, daily sightings board. Map
- Zicklacke and Illmitzer Zicksee — Soda lakes with waders and geese, west of Illmitz. Map
- Seedamm / Sandeck (Illmitz – lake shore) — Reed edge, Hungarian grey cattle; roosting geese in the reed belt. Map
How to go on your own, and what it costs
Lange Lacke: park at the Apetlon car park and walk the circular dyke trail (hides unlocked; trails open at night, core zones beyond the path closed). Illmitz information centre for the daily sightings board and ranger tours. Seedamm road from Illmitz to the lake shore.
Cost: Free; Nationalpark ranger excursions €20.50 adult, €11 child (2026).
Who runs access
- Nationalpark Neusiedler See – Seewinkel ranger excursions (park authority) — Guided tours year-round from Illmitz, including goose evenings.
Field-recording notes
Flat, open and windy — the Seewinkel is a wind farm and steppe landscape; a wide pair low against a dyke bank, evening only when the wind drops. Soda lakes dry up in autumn some years, moving the roosts; the Illmitz centre knows where. Trails are open at night but the core zones (Bewahrungszonen) are off-limits; hides are unlocked. Hunting is banned inside the national park but permitted in surrounding fields — shots on weekend mornings. The A4 is too far to hear; the Illmitz–Apetlon road is quiet at night.
Sources
- Nationalpark Neusiedler See – Seewinkel: Lange Lacke route
- Neusiedlersee.com – Herbst im Nationalpark
Similar spectacles
Wadden Sea autumn: geese, waders and whooper swans in the marshBarnacle goose yapping in flocks of tens of thousands over the Ballum marsh, brent geese growling on the flats, golden plover flocks whistling, whooper swan families bugling on the polders at night, curlew; the tide.
Pink-footed goose dawn flightsTens of thousands of geese lifting off the mudflats at first light in a wall of 'wink-wink' calls, wave after wave overhead.
Whooper swans & barnacle geeseBugling whoopers and yapping barnacle flocks like a huge crowd; the whole Svalbard barnacle population is on one estuary.
Arctic geese on the Lower RhineWhite-fronted geese's high yelping in skeins of thousands, bean geese's deeper 'kayak', the roar of a roost lifting off the Rhine at first light, whooper swans on the Bislicher Altrhein; barges and the A57 underneath.
Doñana in winter: geese and the marismasTens of thousands of greylags calling at first light, wigeon whistling in rafts, flamingos honking, glossy ibis colonies grunting, and the near-total absence of roads in the marsh core.
Wintering greylags at VillafáfilaWaves of greylags leaving the saline lagoons at first light in a continuous honking chorus, with great bustards grunting on the stubble and cranes overhead.
More: all spectacles in Austria · wild geese · winter geese, swans and ducks · Austria in October · November · Austria in December