What a start to the year we’ve had. It’s been one of the busiest times in the woodlands, with dozens of nest boxes going up in Kilmagad Wood and countless birch saplings coming out of the peat dome in Portmoak Moss.

We marked national nest box week in February with a day involving the whole of Portmoak Primary School. We had initially hoped to attract a few children to such an event but head teacher, Louise Gordon, asked if all the pupils could help make and install boxes. Absolutely! 

This year the school are celebrating local birds and that ties in with curriculum work on migration and coping with climate, which several classes are doing

Kinross and District Men’s Shed offered to make the nest box kits; bird box experts David and Linda Gibson supervised the design and installation, while members of  our woodland group and staff from Woodland Trust Scotland helped out on the day. 

Teachers, teaching assistants and a number of parents accompanied three groups of children on the walk from the school to the ‘workshop’ in Portmoak Village Hall. Then they watched as teams of us climbed ladders to fix up the boxes. The pupils had decorated them with beautiful pictures of nature, so not only cozy homes for the nesting birds but an art exhibition to enjoy if you’re in Kilmagad Wood.

It was organised by PCWG member Dave Batchelor, who began to plan the event last summer and was delighted everything worked out: “It was as perfect an example of a whole community coming together as you could imagine. Even the weather cooperated.”

Lunch for the Men’s Shed, et al, was provided by the group - lots of soup and home baking, not to mention hot fruit crumbles (thanks Marje!).