On 3/7/06 13:13, in article , "Malcolm"
wrote:


In article , Sacha
writes
On 3/7/06 11:25, in article
,
" wrote:

I have a tree (Ok, Lleylandi sp?) I desperately need to trim the top
off. However, there is a birds nest about half way up it (way below
where I intend to chop). Nest appears to be vacant, but I cannot be
certain. I think the birds are starlings.

Is there any time I can safely assume the nest would be vacant in order
to perform the appropriate chopping of the tree?

Can you wait until September to be on the safe side? If it IS a starling's
nest, it may well be vacant by now but if not, well........starlings are on
the Red List.

Their presence on the Red List doesn't affect things as it has no legal
status.
snip

But the legal status, or otherwise, isn't the point. The point is:

"The UK's birds can be split in to three categories of conservation
importance - red, amber and green.
Red is the highest conservation priority, with species needing urgent
action. Amber is the next most critical group, followed by green.*
Please refer to our PDF download*for the full list of red and amber
categorised species (see link).*
Birds in the red and amber lists will be subject to at least one of the
relevant factors listed below. Again, a full list of criteria can be found
in the PDF download (see link).
Red list criteria
€ Globally threatened
€ Historical population decline in UK during 1800-1995
€ Rapid ( or =50%) decline in UK breeding population over last 25
years
€ Rapid ( or =50%) contraction of UK breeding range over last 25
years"***
http://www.rspb.org.uk/birds/guide/status_explained.asp
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(email address on website)