An Indian Summer?

On the way to the Wet Wood, a pool dammed by some reed sweet grass.

The simplestem bur reed has spread remarkably into the Wet Wood and down the Burnished Burn to flourish along its reaches. Jeremy Purseglove mentions the plant as an important one for wetland habitats in his 'Taming the Flood', first published around 1986 and republished with revisions and beautiful woodcuts this year. 

Summertime, a short spell of drought, and the canal is running more as a trickle than an engineering work along which branches may be floated.

Overall the work of the beavers has made the whole place wetter. My leaky trainer shoes confirmed this for me, though the undergrowth was too thick to see through.

The arrival of a hobby was an excitement of the summer at Bamff. Hobbies tend to be further south. They prey on fast birds such as swifts and swallows, but also dragonflies. Could an abundance of dragonflies at Bamff encourage them? I don't know, but swallows, martins and bats looking for invertebrate life over the ponds could well.