Keep dogs on a lead, urges trust

YORKSHIRE Wildlife Trust are encouraging dog owners to keep their pets on leads while visiting nature reserves and the wider countryside during nesting season from March until August.

Unsupervised dogs can unintentionally cause harm to ground-nesting birds such as skylarks, lapwings, meadow pipits and woodcock, as well as other birds such as robins and dunnocks that nest close to the ground, so it is vital that they are kept under control.

Yorkshire Wildlife Trust’s Grass Wood nature reserve, near Grassington, is popular with visitors looking to enjoy the spring wildflowers or autumnal colour, including dog walkers.

Reserve assistant, Becky Dennison, said: “Grass Wood nature reserve is a popular and special site with lots of wonderful wildlife, but it includes some very sensitive species including songbirds that can easily be disturbed.

“Nesting and fledgling birds are particularly vulnerable to disturbance – the eggs of the willow warbler are so tiny that they can be snaffled up or crushed in a moment without the owner noticing, and scaring a bird away from its eggs in poor or cold weather can lead to the eggs or chicks freezing to death very quickly. We implore everyone to please keep your dogs on leads, especially in spring when wildlife is at its most vulnerable.”

Off-lead dogs have also been known to go for the occasional unexpected swim in ponds, rivers and other waterbodies. These areas are home to wildlife that dogs can disturb, such as voles, otters and newts, and there is also a risk of pets getting injured.