I thought charity began at home. Not so, the grass has been cut in a nearby field thereby endangering the Skylarks and the RSPB said to report it to the police. The Wildlife Crime Office is not available as she has been in court for the last ten days. The local press did an article which was kind of them. Today I see more grass has been cut but on phoning the RSPB again they cannot help. Where's the protection there then!! Despair is setting in.
Skywalker
Hi Mary,
I genuinely empathise with your dispair here. This is something whcih happens all to often. The key points to note with regard Skylarks and their nests are as follows:
"The Skylark is fully protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, which makes it an offence to kill, injure or take an adult skylark, or to take, damage or destroy an active nest or its contents. The only exception is legitimate farming practices that cannot be resonably delayed, although farming methods can often be modified to reduce the impacts on the skylarks."
This is much the same as "essential" forestry work which cannot always be offset. It's always worth pointing out that if the work isn't deemed to be "essential" nor for the purpose of farming without measures taken to mitigate the impact on nesting birds it is still a criminal offence all the same. Gather photographs of nests or any other evidence and if the Wildlife Crime Officer is not available, ask that the incident is immediately brought to their attention. Make sure you get an incident number of the call you make. Wildlife crimes such as this do require police intervention but in addition it is worth reporting such crimes through our website so we know the police should be responding http://www.rspb.org.uk/ourwork/policy/wildbirdslaw/report.asp
Hope that helps a little and best wishes
L