Helping The Birds: The Heathland Code


Many of us will have wanted to help our familiar garden birds by putting up nest boxes for them to use in the spring. We rightly love the sight of the blue tits and robins taking advantage of our help.


But beyond our gardens, out on our beautiful heaths, there are other birds which cannot be helped by our thoughtful actions, such as putting up nest boxes. This is because their specialist lifestyle involves nesting on the ground amongst the heather and bracken. So, these birds need our help and thoughtfulness in another way. They very much need us to think constantly about not disturbing them as they keep vigil on their eggs or chicks when we go out on the heath. We, or our dogs, only have to stray a very short distance from a path for a rare woodlark or nightjar to be scared off its vulnerable nest – quite possibly causing the bird to fail to breed successfully. A failed year is very signifi cant to such rare birds, which can only breed on this rare habitat we are so lucky to have around us. This is why it is so important that we stick to the paths


Woodlark nest © Andy Fale


and keep our dogs on a lead from March, when the nesting season begins, right through the summer, when it ends.


None of us would deliberately destroy


Nightjar © Steve Davis


the nest of a robin or blue tit, but it is terribly easy to unwittingly destroy the nest of a woodlark or nightjar just by leaving the paths or not keeping our dogs on a lead in the spring and summer. If we follow the 'heathland code' in this and other ways, we can both protect our the special wildlife of the heath and enjoy its beauty to the full. Read the heathland code at: www.dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk/heathland-code


Find out more about wildlife on the heath and in east Dorset at the Wild About the Great Heath family event on Sunday 23rd April at Upton House in Poole from 10am-4pm: www.dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk/ wild_about_the_great_heath


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