I was walking in mid Argyllshire with friends earlier this week. While travelling to the start of the walk my friends stopped to show me where they thought there was an osprey nest - it had been clearly visible from the public road and they had been shown it in the summer by local residents.
The area appeared to have been recently felled, including the nest site. There had been extensive felling in and around the site. My friends were adamant regarding the location of the nest although realistically they might have been mistaken.
Would it be the case that the Forestry Commission would remove an osprey nest site?
If so, is it likely a replacement nest would be installed near there?
I am aware that the FC do work in partnership with wildlfe agencies.
"The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom" - Wlliam Blake
The osprey is afforded the highest degree of legal protection under Schedule 1 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. It is an offence to intentionally take, injure or kill an osprey or to take, damage or destroy its nest, eggs or young (NB: Osprey nests are only protected all year round in England and Wales, NOT in Scotland).
It is also an offence to intentionally or recklessly disturb the birds close to the nest during the breeding season. Therefore felling work would be legitimate outside of the breeding period. Violation of the law can attract fines of up to £5,000 per offence and/or a prison sentence of up to 6 months. The Nature Conservation (Scotland) Act 2004 widens this protection, making any reckless as well as intentional action against ospreys or their nests an offence in Scotland.
RSPB do indeed work in partnership with the Forestry Authority an in doing so published the document Forests and Birds – A guide to managing forests for rare birds. This includes sections on operational planning, minimising disturbance and establishing disturbance free zones etc. The methods described here should be considered standard operational procedures in mitigating any potential impacts on rare birds and protected wildlife.
Specific to Scotland - this would only constitute as an offence if the felling was done during the breeding season. If this was the case, It may be that the work was considered essential and had to be carried out under a government licence. If so, I would expect that other platforms would be constructed near by (I'd certainly hope so anyway!)
As ever, if you or your friends suspect this work is in breach of the law mentioned above we would strongly urge such matters to be reported to a Wildlife Crime Officer based within local regional police force. For more info see details on how to report a wildlife crime (police switchboard numbers are included as a download via the hyperlink). Any potential investigation would require as much information as possible - witness statements, photographs and if possible grid references of the site.
Thanks for the reply LloydScott.
I am very aware of the degree of protection given to the osprey which is why I did not publicly disclose the exact whereabouts of the site, and was surprised and concerned about the forestry operations there - although I did mention the nest had been clearly visible from a tarred public road and thought as such it would be well documented.
The link in your reply to the Forests and Birds doc. is broken but I shall try to access it independently. I shall also read the how to report a wildlife crime info. and perhaps get in touch with the Argyll bird group.
Claire
Hi CLaireM,
Please also note the few tweaks regarding the law North of the Border! The hyperlinks should also be working fine now. Any information given re: locations) can be provided in stirct confidence through the crime report page.
Thanks again!
Lloyd