Nesting birds

[Mark Bolam]

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.

 

10 points mate.

 

I'm a shooting man, but still feel nesting birds of any stamp deserve a bit of 'law' if possible.

 

 

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[Darrin Turnbull]

I've seen pigeons nesting in the winter time (train station here in Berlin).I think if it's warm enough they nest all year round.

[Mark Bolam]

True.

We have found pigeon and dove squabs in every single month.

 

 

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[john p]

Had to stop a job on Thursday , last leyllandi out of five had a couple of tiny pigeon chicks in it, I just haven't got it in me to chuck em on the floor!

[felixthelogchopper]

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.

 

I suspect it is because the wording declares reckless disturbance to be an offence IIRC.

[rapalaman]

I've successfully moved collared dove and woody nests down a few feet to below my cuts in leylandi and although initially a bit confused, have seen the parents carry on feeding the young so it's worth a go. But for complete removals I have a large converted shed/aviary and have hand reared maybe 15 or so and let them go once fully fledged. Not sure what the survival rate is, but I'd rather not harm them if possible when working