The song of the wild geese walking tour - Discovery Tour

Anyone who would like to visit this unique natural landscape will have to get here by car. This is where lots of species of birds live in the open, far away from any traffic. When you return to the parking area at the entrance to the village after a walk around Lake Klostersee in Altfriedland, you’ll have seen a breath-taking world of birds that you’ll find hard to forget. The ponds of Altfriedland are a European bird protection area and are part of the Märkische Schweiz nature park. Two observation points provide a unique view of the cranes and wild geese flying back in the evening to roost by the ponds. Alongside them live sea eagles and red kites, as there is plenty of prey for them here.
At the edge of the Oderbruch (former marshland) region, where the River Stöbber flows into the “Alte Oder” river, damming and diking between 1968 and 1972 created a large number of shallow ponds, the largest of which is Lake Kietzer See, covering around 200 hectares. Once carp farming had become less intensive, the bird population changed; today, it is more like that of a shallow lake. Around 600 cranes use the area in autumn for roosting. So far, more than 120 species of bird have been verifiably observed here, including common terns, black-headed gulls, herring gulls, lapwing, goosangers and great white egrets. In autumn, the Verein Langes Haus association organises walks to the geese roosting areas. With or without binoculars, you can watch countless wild geese gathering by Lake Kietzer See as they prepare to fly south.
There are monastery ruins, the monastery church, monastery inn and Lake Klostersee with a large sunbathing lawn by the bathing area along the way.

Length: 5.9 kilometres (around 3 hours)

Start/finish: Circular trail, Lake Klostersee Altfriedland (municipality of Neuhardenberg)

Getting there by car: via the B167 near Altfriedland

Sights: Altfriedland monastery ruinAltfriedland monastery churchFormer Altfriedland estate gardensBird-watching station"Langes Haus” local history parlour
Maps/Literature: Unterwegs im Oderbruch (kostenlos)"Seenland Oder-Spree: Fahrrad- und Erlebniskarte", Maßstab 1 : 100.000 / 1 : 175.000, Auflage: 4 (August 2017), ​ISBN 978-3-945138-01-4, Euro 6.90