Bird Season starts March 1st

[puntloos]

Hey all,

 

I'm hoping to start building (and take down the original structure) in May-Jun timeframe. Middle of bird season.

Anything I should do "today" about the garden? No 'major' trees here, but of course there's some shrubs, hedges etc that will be hard to guarantee their safety with big-wheeled cement trucks etc going up and down the property...

 

Nets? Cut everything down? (neighbours might bristle at this..)

What happens if we do find an active bird's nest somewhere during construction that is "badly in the way"? 

 

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/construction-near-protected-areas-and-wildlife says:

 

In exceptional cases, avoiding harm isn’t possible. In these cases the law allows for actions which would normally be illegal if you can show that:

- the activity is lawful, such as development with planning permission
- you’ve not been able to avoid the impact of the activity

 

Would that put us in the clear if we stumble on an unlucky bird/bat during our process and have to try and gently coax them to leave? We do (obv.) have planning permission but is that sufficient here or would it need to be some special planning permission including a "bad luck for the birds" section?

 

[Russell griffiths]

Anything you want to remove, do it now. 

Anything to be retained can have a net put over it to prevent birds entering it, it must be tied at the base to prevent entry. 

 

Any shrubs you want to retain that might get damaged get them dug out and put somewhere out of harms way.