Keep dogs on leads 1st March - 31st July to protect groundnesting birds

[Scrowy]

This is my (now) annual reminder.

If you are walking across farm land or open access land with your dogs please PLEASE keep the dog on a lead during ground nesting season.

your lovely dog does not mean any harm but startling the parent birds off the nest leaves the nest vulnerable to other predators. Crows, stoats, weasels, foxes, badgers, gulls, squirrels (they love eggs!), magpies, rats etc all take advantage of a unattended nest.

It is the law to keep dogs on a lead on open access land (so most National park land during 1st March and the 31st July.

it's also lambing time in many places and sheep worrying is on the rise.

thankyou

I'm no expert on the subject but I'm fairly certain that's not how it works.

they definitely aren't hunted by dogs

and I'm pretty sure the pheasants etc are mostly bred in captivity and released as young birds 'into the wild' to be shot at later down the line.

The protection of wild ground nesting birds is an entirely unrelated issue, although they do directly benefit from the game keeping/ predator control that happens on big shooting estates.

I think some of the moors in my general area may be used for grouse and partridge shooting, but they do support a lot of wild birds too. I'm fortunate to be in an area with a wide variety of birds in the bay and the moors. I've heard curlews, skylarks and peewits this week.

Problem is that if I start a thread out of curiousity what farmers do about skylarks, it will be shut down as a TAAT. And really I'm just curious.

I don't see any reason you shouldn't start a thread on any subject which has tangentially arisen on another and piqued your interest. That's really not what the bar on 'TAATs' is about.
But as we're here and I'm interested too, I found this.

www.rspb.org.uk/our-work/conservation/conservation-and-sustainability/farming/advice/helping-species/skylark/

Thank you!

Grouse and pheasant shooting seasons start in August and October respectively, so don't bring hunters to the moors during ground nesting season.

I knew to keep dogs on leads, but I didn't know that there was a specified length of lead. I keep my dog on a long, flat 5m training line normally, and she goes along the route I'll be walking - not investigating the undergrowth to each side of it. I'll have to make sure I keep her closer!

Bump

I will bump this thread everyday until 31 July.

Thank you.

Gearing up to be a busy Good Friday out here on the fells by the looks of things. It's been a beautiful morning do far in the lambing fields.

I hope everyone out there tries their best to keep dogs on leads, take their rubbish home with them and has a lovely peaceful time enjoying our beautiful countryside.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-stoke-staffordshire-65235718

I didn't realise some of those small birds were ground nesters - I think I've always heard chiffchaffs and willow warblers in trees or large bushes so assumed that was where they nested.
Always good to learn something!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-64808048.amp

Its a shame the Wildlife trusts haven't been plugging the Take The Lead campaign they have run in previous years at this time of year but a quick suggests they have done a few press releases which are quite informative for anyone still under the impression that it's not a real issue.

https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/news/pet-owners-help-wildlife