If you are lucky, there is a every chance of spotting an osprey soaring in the skies of the Wee County in the next week or two after having just arrived for the forthcoming breeding season.
Last year, their spring return was unusually early, with one even turning up in the nearby Trossachs in early March.
Their arrival brings wonderful memories tumbling back in my mind of seeking out these fish-eating raptors by the River Findhorn in Moray or the sparkling lochs of central Perthshire.
Ospreys are true heralds of spring and a sign that the season of renewal has begun.
With there being so much depressing news about the state of nature, there is also much to celebrate, and the osprey is a pillar of such optimism, given its remarkable recovery from extinction in Scotland in the first half of the 20th century to the current robust and growing population.
My mind becomes giddy with excitement at this time of year – and it is a battle of the will whether to look in the air for newly arrived birds like ospreys or cast my eyes to the ground in my local wood in search of spring flowers.
The brassy blooms of lesser celandine are bursting out in profusion in a mind-numbing display of yellow-flecked beauty, but I have a soft spot for the underdog, and it is the opposite-leaved golden saxifrage that always draws me in.
It is a real tongue-twister of a name for a plant, yet the subtle, mustard-hued mats that carpet the banks of woodland burns and nearby shady recesses deserve close inspection.
The flowers of opposite-leaved golden saxifrage have no petals, the shape and colour instead coming from the four miniscule sepals (the outer protective bud part of a flower).
The arrangement is intricate and perfect; each flower unremarkable by itself, but when clustered with many others, the result is a golden carpet of joyous splendour.
These early spring flowers are the bedrock for so much other life, providing sweet nectar for newly emerged queen bumblebees and other insects.
This initial cautious unfolding will soon turn into an unstoppable cascade, including wood anemones, primroses and stitchwort all bursting into bloom.
It is a truly glorious time in the nature calendar and it is well worth getting out into the countryside to explore the beautiful wild places of Clackmannanshire.
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