Protecting Eggs and Nests

Over the weekend I had to adjust my plans. On Saturday I was supposed to go out with friends walking in the Pennines but as I am also volunteering as a body guard for one of the rare raptors that nest in the region, I had to cancel going on the walk for guard duties.

When at the nesting site, I was told that as the wind was gusting sixty and seventy miles per hour on the Pennines, I realised I had made the right choice.

I have been given permission to talk about this here, but obviously I can not say anything that will disclose or reveal the exact location of the nesting site. Its unfortunate that there are still people who collect eggs and deliberately disturb and destroy the nests of raptors. Thus the reason for helping protect the nest and the site. I, or better to say We, are not too close to the nest, but still close enough to have the reasonable view of the pair. But as the main reason for being there is to stop people approaching the nest, my main task was people watching rather than bird watching.

Just at the point that my relief arrived, a group of walkers decided that they were going to move off the public path. So I was not involved in trying to dissuade them from taking that route. Even informing the walkers that they were at risk of disturbing rare wildlife didn't dissuade them. Normally people will respond positively to requests like this, but this group were determined and militant.

I guess that I need to explain to my overseas readers, that in the UK we have a “Right to Roam” enshrined in law. However, this can be suspended to protect wildlife or if work using heavy machinery is being used, such as the tree felling that has been going on in my local woods. These walkers were adamant that they had the right to walk where ever they wanted. This stand off went on for over twenty minutes, so my fellow volunteer asked me to call the land owner. This I did. It took some ten minutes or so before he turned up, what surprised me was that the police arrived too. This changed the attitude of the walkers and suddenly they were keen to leave.
Following the police checking who the walkers were, it emerged that one was related to a person previously convicted of raiding nests.

It shows that the role of guarding this nest site and the many others up and down the country is vital. I had been thinking that I would have been having more fun had I gone off walking, but this experience shows why this work is so important.

Then on Sunday, I got a call from one of the people I would have been walking with and it turns out that they an eventful time too. As I said the weather was rather windy, when I heard the where they were walking I realised just how silly (I could use stronger words) they were. Two of the party came back injured as they were blown off their feet on the ridge top. I told my caller that I thought they had been irresponsible to even attempt to walk in such a location in weather conditions like that.

Fortunately, while late back, they all got back safely. But even my friend agreed that it had not been wise. The problem is that the boldest person in a party can lead others into danger. Anyway, I looked up this article about some of the stupid things that people do when out walking.

The Article