Nature seems to be forcing us beyond our boundaries. And I don’t think we’re the only community group working in new ways to try to increase the chances for wildlife.

This summer has seen a lot of connections made and while our focus remains on Kilmagad Wood and Portmoak Moss and the rich biodiversity at both sites, its future depends on what’s happening in the wider area.

Let’s begin on home territory, though, and it’s time to save the day - September 29th - for our annual apple event.  In one of our new partnerships, we’ll have not only the usual apple picking, pressing and home-baking in the afternoon but also an expert-led, fungus walk in the morning. 

Both events will be in Kilmagad Wood, the first starting in Portmoak Village Hall car park, at 10.30am, where you will be met by mycologist Cameron Diekonigin, from Scotlandwell, and the second at 2pm in Portmoak Community Orchard. For the fungus walk there will be a small, £2 charge and you can book your place by emailing Cameron at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Apple day will be free, as usual, but we welcome donations for the drinks and home-baking. Please remember to bring containers to take home fresh apple juice and, if you have your own apples, bring them along to add to the mix.

Some of our group, led by Marje Smith, have teamed up with Portmoak Primary School, on a project to count how many spring blossoms go onto produce autumn fruit and we’ll be very interested to see their results.

Marje has also been busy producing the latest in her series of booklets which make it fun to look out for nature and try to identify what you’ve seen. The first two, Bogtastic and Treetastic, were based on Portmoak Moss and Kilmagad Wood. The third, Biotastic, takes you from Loch Leven’s Larder to RSPB Loch Leven. You don’t have to do it all in one go!

We’re grateful to Portmoak Festival for helping to fund the new booklet and to primary school teachers from a wide area, for ‘test-driving’ it at an event hosted by the Scottish Schools Education Research Centre at the Larder.  Our local primary school pupils have also tried it out and it'll soon be available at various outlets around the loch.

To help biodiversity in the area we were also involved in a Swift walk on Sunday June 30th in Kinnesswood. This came out of the biodiversity mapping day with Tayside Biodiversity Partnership in April.  The village used to be a hotspot for Swifts and we wondered what could be done to get them back.

Danièle Muir is a brilliant and experienced guide and she helped us to identify where some of the few, remaining swifts are nesting - under eaves in The Cobbles and Main Street.  The locations have been recorded and we hope to add to them, with some special nest boxes, to make up for a lack of nesting sites, and with a much better idea of how to spot them.