Thanks Pete Unfortunately we have no great crested newts. The contractors ecological survey showed up nothing that they needed to take special measures to protect. The wildlife plots is an area which we have set up to attract wildlife and it has worked too. I feel strongly that now that we have invited the animals in and set up a good habitat for them that we should do everything that we can to look after them. For me this means finding out if we should go in and actvely collect and relocate or whether to leave well alone and let the animals move themselves initially. Eventually we will have to do somthing active as the whole area will be built on later next year. I have to say that many of the wildlife site links on this forum have been very helpful and I have sent lots of emails to various organisations. Debs
-- Edited by Debs Wallace on Friday 4th of December 2009 10:21:35 PM
This may be a total red herring [no pun intended] but if there are Great Crested newts rather than Smooth newts isn't there a legal requirement to mitigate the damage to the area they are found in [hence all the newt fencing anywhere there are major road works etc]. Just a thought that if you did have Great Crested [a] the developers would have to comply with the law and they might be persuaded to do the job of managing the habitat next to the build more sensitively?
Ian I'm sorry this is not just birds (it's mostly not birds in fact) I have also posted this on Manchester Wildlife website but I am trying to ask as many folk as possible who may be knowledgable in these matters.
We are going to lose our school wild life plots because due to a major school building project. We have campaigned hard to retain them but this will not happen. The preparatory work will start next week and there will be several building phases lasting for about two years. The wild life plots are a narrow strip of land (approx 5m wide) with houses / gardens on one side and the school tennis courts on the other (currently fenced by high chain link). The construction will not actually take place on the plots until the middle of next year, however as from 14.12.09 there will be large construction machinery ripping up the tennis court surface, churning up the ground and pumping in stabilising material. This will cause a lot of noise, a fair bit of dust and a lot of vibration to the ground. This work will last for two weeks and the contractors expect that it will cause significant disturbance to wild life on the other side of the chain link fence. The plots contain a small pond with frogs and newts, bird feeders, nest boxes, log / branch and stick piles and some shrubby undergrowth. These areas may well contain (hibernating?) hedgehogs and possibly other small mammals such as wood mice. If you have any experience of relocating wildlife, have any knowledge of what time of year (given the time constrains which I have detailed) is ok or really not ok, any opinions about leaving things where they are or moving them out next week, I would be very glad to hear them because we potentially have very little time and may have a lot to do.
1.We need advice as to whether it is better to go in now, search areas where hibernating hedgehogs may be hiding before the machinery moves in adjacent to the area. 2.Whether it is better to leave the wild life alone and let the animals decide for themselves if they want to move away (hopefully in the direction of the gardens and not on to the construction site). 3.Would frogs which may still be in the pond be better off left in there or moved out now? 4.If you know of any organisations that actually do this kind of thing and may be able to help or advise us in any way please let me know. 5.Either way, next year we will need to move things out prior to the plots being lost and we will need to relocate wildlife therefore advice as to how and when to do this would be appreciated. 6. We also have several nest boxes in this area too, should we take them down right now?
