Nesting birds

[greenarb]

Ok good to know skyhuck, will try my best to find them before i stick the gob in :-)

[agrimog]

I an certain there is an exception for pigeons as they are classed as vermin, and nest all year round, and once through the chipper who noticed what nest

[detritus21]

No exception for pigeons still fall under the act. As long as you have done what is reasonably practicable to ensure no birds are present then you are ok. This could be a set period watching the tree to see if anything flies in or out or a climb and look. If you do it it should also be recorded so you have a comeback if anyone does complain. I have done it on a couple of contentious sites.

[Ruskins Trees]

I was told the law is a bit weird with pigeons, you cannot disturb their nest but you can shoot them even if flying to / from a nest. Is this right?

[IanW]

have a look at the natural England site, look at the general licence regarding wild birds that are pests,

 

 

 

if you can justify removing them because of disease or public safety, maybe including the tree your working on, you are fully allowed to remove the species of bird on the general licence.

 

ian

[countrryboy]

Ian is right above:thumbup1:

 

U can only kill pigeons and other pest species under the terms of the general licence which are different in all 4 countries, so u have to check.

Generally crop protection, environmental and wild bird conservation/protection are the most common used

[ScottF]

Almost accidentally turfed two pigeon chicks out of a nest up a mature lime on Friday. Nest was in a crotch and I was going to loop my rope into it but ended up stepping past it and looked back into the "empty" nest to see two large but fluffy chicks in it. They never made a sound. Apparently they hadn't been told the nesting season was over.

 

I carefully stuffed their nest back into the crotch and worked around them, taking the lumps of dead wood over the footpath out with the Silky. Saw mum returning just after I got down.

 

I know they're "only" pigeons but I still would have felt bad if I'd pushed them out. On the other hand, I've heard squab is quite the delicacy.

[IanW]

pigeon with garlic mushrooms......

 

Mmmm

[brazenberg]

It is illegal to deliberately kill/disturb ANY nesting birds, it isn't illegal to accidentally kill/disturb nesting birds!

This is how the council and farmers get away with brushing hedge rows and road verges in June/July/August, they kill literally thousands of nesting birds without any problems what so ever.

Good rule of thumb is to expect birds to be nesting or prepping nests from the beginning of April till the end of August.

If I fell a tree that on inspection after felling has potential bat/bird nesting cavity's etc I leave for 24-48 hours before removing from site.

If a has a high likely hood of birds or bats(or dormouse) and is dangerous I call either NRW or natural England to try and get them to make the call on felling the tree or not, they don't like doing this and in most cases will tell you the best way to fell the tree instead of stopping you from felling as this will put liability on them.

[armchairarborist]

I had to remove this nesting pigeon two weeks ago. Yuck!