Just a quick pull-in for a peep at Aberlady today because we're on the way east from Edinburgh to somewhere else. Not so much for the name, the Virgin Mary and all that, but here is, get this, HQ of the Scottish Ornithologists' Club, no less.

No strangers to the brandishing of a binoc, there's a Local Nature Reserve, the first in the UK, they say, and there are plenty of people out and about. Looking through the lenses, however, they ain't no twitchers but members of a swingers club, club swingers of the golfing kind, that is.

Yes, the A198 that hugs the south shoreline of the Firth of Forth is renowned as the 'Golf Coast Road' at least it is in East Lothian and if you happen to be keen on golf.

Twenty-one courses in total although a handful are inland and a few belong to Edinburgh, really, so 15 courses in total, not that SlyBob know much about foursomes.

We don't mean that kind of swinging but the denial suggests otherwise? Deary me, all that's being said is that we know nothing of that, golf or Game of Thrones for that matter so please stop asking if we've seen it.

This much about golf is already known, though, because it's right next door to Gullane and regular readers, yeah right, will know all about that.

Ignoring the human lightning conductors in the distance, for now, there's the small matter of a smart-looking village through which the main road passes.

The Lodge was or still is yours for a snip at not too far south of £2M Walter-Scott-readies and the fanciest corner shop seen for a while is handily opposite.

The Old Aberlady Inn and the Grace of India might warrant a night if you're exploring these parts but there is, however, a problem...

The place is full of people who play golf.

Remember the Local Nature Reserve? Well, Aberlady Bay Local Nature Reserve is pretty much where and what it says it is, overlooking tidal flats and salt marsh that lead to woodland and dunes.

It's full of migrants, geese in winter and warblers in summer and looks not a little unlike this.

There is, however, no time for that today despite it looking not a little unlike that. No time, neither, for the added attraction of getting close enough to some golfers to pretend to sneeze at them at tee-time, hee-hee.

As for the Scottish Ornithologists' Club HQ, it's further back on the road through but despite their welcoming claim, there's nary a soul aboot.

Now, the Oxford English Definition™ of the word 'Knacky' is to be artful or cunning but SlyBob have a different definition. It has come to mean in this house to be daunted in a diffident kind of way with particular regard to authority figures e.g. 'I was a bit knacky about stopping a policeman, despite having just been held up at gunpoint.'

A solitary, studious-looking gent is focused on a periodical through his bifocals meaning SlyBob are a bit knacky about entering, which is a shame since we're not experts and they offer advice and identification tips.

Some of those could be done with because quite a few of something unfamiliar have been seen in flight...

They're white and dimpled, about yay big and make a strange thwacking sound before they take off. They're also fast, like 150-mph fast but don't fly for long preferring to rest on the flat.

They can occasionally be found in long grass evading human hunters but normally nest in holes, usually alone. We definitely heard somebody describe them as some kind of birdie, an eagle perhaps?

Ah think ye'll fin' that's a golf baw!

I don't know, no sense of humour some folk, eh? No wonder we're knacky around them.