Portmoak Community Woodland

Save the day - now two great events!

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. 

Glastonbury:who needs it?

Worthy Farm has its attractions - obviously! But for a more laid-back experience, minus the travelling and the crowds, we had a great time in Scotlandwell.

As part of the Portmoak Festival, the woodland group and Woodland Trust Scotland were delighted to host a lovely open air concert in the community orchard in Kilmagad Wood. Ace musicians, Vicky Gray and Sean McLaughlin, from Scotlandwell, organised the gig which featured a fantastic line-up of a dozen singers and instrumentalists performing traditional Scottish tunes as well as songs by the likes of Neil Young and Eric Clapton.

The sun came out and there was no need for wellies, on Sunday June 9th. The audience brought folding chairs and picnic rugs and were surrounded by apple trees and native woodland for an afternoon of great music.

Generally, the loudest sound in Kilmagad Wood is bird song (once you're away from the road) and this year the bird theme dominated the Festival.

Across the road, in the village hall, there was an exhibition, by Portmoak Primary School, of beautiful pictures and craftwork inspired by the birds they’ve been learning about this year. It included photos and a write-up about the nest box project we did with them in February. Good news on that front: the first blue tits moved in a few weeks ago. 

Portmoak Community Woodland Group also contributed to the Festival by organising two guided bird song walks, led by Scott Paterson, of Kinross Ecology. 

Starting at breakfast time, we slowly walked round Portmoak Moss with Scott helping us to identify which birds were singing and calling and sharing his wealth of knowledge about what the different species might be communicating to each other, whether it was about territory, mating or something to be alarmed about in the undergrowth. 

Meadow pipits were very active in the centre of the peat bog, great spotted woodpeckers drummed on the trees and song thrushes sang brilliantly and inventively. They seem to be having a good year.

Not so good are the numbers of swifts. They used to be such a common sight on summer evenings in Scotlandwell and Kinnesswood. But there maybe things we can do to help and, to that end, there’s a guided walk, all about swifts, starting at Kinnesswood bus stop at 8.30pm on Sunday 30th June. This has come about as a result of our involvement with the Tayside Biodiversity Project. It'll be led by Danièle Muir of Perthshire Wildlife. It’s free and open to everyone.