Brown Moss of breeding birds at the site and many visitors, including wetland birds, such as Canada goose, mallard and great crested grebe. During the summer, froglets and dragonflies are found around water and woodland edges. Brown Moss is a flat site that was created at the end of the last Ice Age, over 10,000 years ago. As glaciers retreated, pools were formed by the stranded ice rocks, forming kettle holes Peat is still being created and Sphagnum moss – which is very important for the creation of peat – is found in abundance. This site contains a number of circular walks
Portlethen Moss saturated organic layers could actually rupture, spilling large volumes of mud and organic debris to surrounding fields, thus enabling a bed for further spatial expansion of the entire bog. Ultimately the colour of the moss waters became blood red in colour, from the successive organic decay and stagnation. Only in times associated with cattle grazing and significant human presence (probably the late Iron Age), would this process reverse and the bog reduce in size. A wide variety of sphagnum, sedges, rushes and other characteristic bog species inhabit Portlethen Moss. Sometimes insectivorous plants reside in mosses, since the soils are generally