Sutton Park Nature Reserve - Advise required.

Hi,

I work for the local water authority and we wish to carry out some work on our assets within Sutton Park, these are located on the far west side of the park, following a pre site visit with the local parks rangers it was mentioned that one of our assets is located within a schedule 1 bird species area and previously has been home for Dartford Warbler's. I am looking to know of any known sightings of birds in this area with rough locations so we can ensure our works do not interfere with the birds habitats. Any advise or pointers to people/sites who may be able to provide any information or support would be much appreciated.

Regards

James

  • Hi James,    Until one of our experts on this Community see your post and can advise you further it may be worth giving the British Trust for Ornithology a call on  01842 7500050  

  • I'd have expected the park rangers to know if there are active Dartfords around, they're a species you tend to find mainly in coastal areas around the south & east. If they're in Sutton Park (near Sutton Coldfield?), they'd be a popular, unusual attraction for local birders I'm sure, so the rangers would know about it.
    If you're still having no luck, the local RSPB group would be sure to know

    https://ww2.rspb.org.uk/groups/suttoncoldfield

  • The lack of any staff moderators is an issue (one that there appears to be a reluctance to address), but in this case I don't think they would be able to help much anyway. James's query is quite specific - is there any Dartford activity in Sutton Park at the moment. The reserve is owned & managed by Birmingham City Council and as Alan's found out, they will simply refer any queries to the local rangers. The RSPB wouldn't have any records of bird activity on reserves managed by other organisations.
    I'm assuming the rangers James talked to were not aware of any current activity (or they'd have said), so the only other source of information would be local birders. The easiest way to contact them is via an organised group - the RSPB Local Group I linked to, or the bird club & County recorders Alan supplied.
  • Hi,
    Thank you for all the responses, the response I have had from the rspb from the direct query I sent is the following "Providing you have thoroughly examined the area beforehand where the works will take place to ensure there are no nesting Dartford warblers, you are more than welcome to proceed. There is no specified minimum distance to keep from actively nesting Schedule 1 species, but a reasonable distance should always be maintained to minimise disturbance. We do not come out to sites to confirm the presence/absence of Schedule 1 species, or any other nesting bird, but you can always ask the park rangers to examine the area with you for a second opinion."
    From the discussions I had with the park ranger they do spot birds within the park but do not have the time to look round for nesting areas away from the main routes of the park. This being said the area we need to work in is approximately a 3mx5m area which is approximately half covered with overgrowth. I will post to the west midlands bird club to see if they have any spotting's recently in the area. If no one has any I will arrange to attend with the park ranger and have a walk around and examine the area we wish to work to confirm there are no birds nesting in this area, this seems the best route to take to be certain we wont be causing any danger unless anyone has any other suggestions?
    Thanks for the help
    Regards
    James
  • It sounds like you're doing everything right. Actually, it's really gratifying to see, as all too often we hear of work being carried out with no regard at all for the wildlife it disrupts, so well done & thank you :-)
  • Hi, just to clarify the response from the RSPB was in reply to an email I sent directly via the contact us part of the home page,
    Again thanks for all the replies and guidance.

    Regards

    James
  • Hi all, thank you for your patience with this one.

    The RSPB Online Community is an active space where nature and conservation enthusiasts can have discussion on many topics. Some of the members of the community do work for the RSPB and other conservation organisations and we encourage a dialogue between members, however we currently are not actively monitoring all the discussions and threads in an official capacity. We are working on a long-term solution to resolve this, but currently are only managing by exception or escalation.

    If there is a specific question for the RSPB we would suggest getting in direct contact https://www.rspb.org.uk/about-the-rspb/get-in-touch/contact-us/

    We would ask politely that members do not flag content as abusive or spam in an attempt to bring it to our attention as the moderation team are not the right contacts to respond to these questions.

    Thanks again for your patience.

  • Fine, but the above link doesn't work
  • Hi Tony - apologies for that, not sure what happened there as the link posted was the correct one. Hopefully this time it should post correctly: https://www.rspb.org.uk/about-the-rspb/get-in-touch/contact-us/

  • The original link has been amended. Thank you!