Working around nesting birds

[Steve Bullman]

Interested on peoples thoughts on this.

 

The law states something along the lines of 'it is illegal to willfully destroy or disturb nesting birds'

 

'Disturb' seems to be open to interpretation as far as I can so. Would working on a tree with nests in, but not going within 20ft of the nests class as disturbing them?

 

Discuss.

[Gary Prentice]

I think you'll find it depends on the definition of initially the police officer who attends, then the 'expert' from the RSPB/RSPCA who they seek guidance from.

 

If there is no straight forward definition of a tree, how do you define 'disturbing' a bird? Are all birds the same? You can walk among ground and cliff nesting sea birds with no harm, but would another species abandon the nest?

[swinny]

If you get close enough they become agitated, or worse, fly away, you've disturbed them. 20ft away you'll be disturbing them.

 

Ok so how do you check a nest is active or occupied then without and ariel check

[swinny]

The same question was raised in respect bats and roosts at the bat course I did. The response was you're technically committing the offence of disturbing the roost. Your mitigation would be you had to check to avoid further problems arising.

 

Double edge sword with a get out of jail free card then

[openspaceman]

Double edge sword with a get out of jail free card then

 

It said mitigate not get away with it:001_smile:

 

Interested on peoples thoughts on this.

 

The law states something along the lines of 'it is illegal to willfully destroy or disturb nesting birds'

.

 

The word wilfully was changed to recklessly, so you have to pro-actively avoid disturbance.

 

No one was prosecuted under the old wording and I don't know about whether any have since the change.

 

We had 20+ crews out inspecting for nests prior to starting work on utilities and rail but very few nests were found, funnily enough when I went out one was found on my work section:001_tongue:

[swinny]

Im not at all saying to get away with it. But you still have to check to see if active or not

[Stubby]

I was cutting a beach hedge and was almost done and a black bird flew out . I did not expose the nest and it was hard to see unless you tried hard . I finished the last bit of the hedge ( wrongly I expect ) but she went on to rear her young successfully and has returned to do it all over again 3 years running .

[Gary Prentice]

I was cutting a beach hedge and was almost done and a black bird flew out . I did not expose the nest and it was hard to see unless you tried hard . I finished the last bit of the hedge ( wrongly I expect ) but she went on to rear her young successfully and has returned to do it all over again 3 years running .

 

Go straight to jail, do not pass 'GO', do not collect £200!

[Stubby]

Go straight to jail, do not pass 'GO', do not collect £200!

 

Ok . Sorry Gary

[steve@black]

I think the RSPB are missing a chance here . As with the bat conservation trust maybe they should provide some sort of training and quailification for this (maybe they do and please correct me ) We had an ecologist on site watching us work a few weeks ago to keep an eye out for nesting birds and was being charged out at £500 a day and when I asked him what type of qualification relating to birds was his reply was none . Wtf !