Schedule 1 Exclusion Zones (2 Viewers)

[bedfontbirder]

Hi,

Does anyone know if there exists any advice regarding exclusion zone sizes around nesting Schedule 1 species. i.e. a radius from the nest site.

Cheers,

BB

 

[Mono]

Schedule 1 is about disturbance. If you don't intentionally cause disturbance you are not committing an offence. The "near the nest" refers to the bird not the cause of disturbance. A music festival PA system kilometres away from a nesting Schedule 1 bird could arguably cause disturbance but a well camouflaged person metres away might not.

 

[Marcus Conway - ebirder]

Schedule 1 is about disturbance. If you don't intentionally cause disturbance you are not committing an offence. The "near the nest" refers to the bird not the cause of disturbance. A music festival PA system kilometres away from a nesting Schedule 1 bird could arguably cause disturbance but a well camouflaged person metres away might not.

I think that boats are encouraged not to be within 250M of a white tailed eagle nest

 

[chris butterworth]

Thankfully when the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 replaced the old Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 the get out word 'intentional' was removed from the section governing disturbance. Any actual disturbance of a Schedule 1 species, intentional or not, is now covered. What that actually means though is a bit of a grey area.My reading is that Schedule 1 species, and all their habitats are fully protected throughout the year - others argue that that only holds true during the breeding season (which is probably what was originally intended ). The idea of a set distance is good but it would have to be different for each species though.

Chris

 

[Mono]

Still actual disturbance has to take place for the offence to be complete, so any distance guidelines would be impossible to set up. As in the above example if a boat 300m away disturbs the eagles then an offence has been committed but if one can successfully sneak one's boat in to 50m away without disturbing the birds then one has not committed an offence.

 

[Farnboro John]

Hypothetically, then, observing a Golden Eagle male that has no mate but holds territory in a National Park in a valley where many fellwalkers habitually traverse the ridges so that the bird is habituated to their presence, you would argue that photography from one of the ridgeline footpaths would not be an offence?

John

 

[Capercaillie71]

This document provides a review of disturbance distances for Schedule 1 species:

http://www.snh.org.uk/pdfs/strategy/renewables/birdsd.pdf

There are a lot of variables involved, so it usually gives a range of distances rather than one definitive distance for each species

 

[Farnboro John]

This document provides a review of disturbance distances for Schedule 1 species:

http://www.snh.org.uk/pdfs/strategy/renewables/birdsd.pdf

There are a lot of variables involved, so it usually gives a range of distances rather than one definitive distance for each species

I found this a very interesting, well-written document with a number of results that I would not have expected.

I shall certainly use it as a guideline to my own activity (although this will never be around nests) as one gets better pictures of undisturbed birds.

John

 

[davercox]

Yes indeed, thank you Capercaillie71.