Gartmorn Dam was strangely quiet, with only a few mute swans and moulting mallards out on the water, along with moorhens dabbling along the reedy fringes.

September is an in-between time of year, with many summer breeders having left, and the winter waterfowl still to arrive. However, as I circuited the loch, there was plenty of other wildlife to see, including mixed parties of blue, great and coal tits bounding through the trees, and a lone buzzard soaring overhead on lazy wings.

There wasn’t as much fungi about as I had hoped for, although I did spot a clump of sulphur tuft toadstools gaining tenure in the trunk of a tree, as well as a small scattering of vibrant, scarlet fly agarics. A few sand martins and swallows flitted low over the water, gleaning the last of the aerial insects before heading-off to their African wintering grounds.

On my return journey along the track that leads to Coalsnaughton, a skein of greylag geese swept low overhead before settling in a field. They may have just arrived from their northern breeding areas, but there are also resident greylags that live in Clackmannanshire, so they could well have been local birds.

The first pink-footed geese will also now be making their arrival from Iceland and Greenland, and dawn and dusk will shortly come alive as they shuttle to and from their roosting sites by the Forth estuary, calling excitedly all the while. With the approach of winter, we are on the cusp of an exciting time in the wildlife calendar, and Gartmorn Dam will begin to fill with waterfowl as they seek sanctuary within its warm embrace.