How you can help keep Tyneside's beloved kittiwakes safe

Newcastle Gateshead Quayside's colony is of vital importance to the future of the kittiwakes, but netting on buildings can cause problems

By

Tony Henderson

11:00, 2 MAY 2019

Visitors to the Newcastle Gateshead Quayside are being asked to monitor the well being of nesting kittiwakes, after birds became trapped in netting on buildings last year.

As hundreds of pairs of kittiwake return to the area to breed in what is the most inland colony in the world, the RSPB and the RSPCA are calling on the public to watch for entangled birds.

The importance of the colony has been underlined by the fact that globally kittiwakes are thought to have declined by around 40% since the 1970s.

 “In the UK kittiwake numbers have plummeted therefore protecting this unique river nesting colony is an important part of the wider conservation effort for the this species,” said the RSPB’s Helen Quayle, who is chairperson of the Tyne Kittiwake Partnership.

“Last year saw these birds receive unprecedented media attention following a series of incidents where kittiwakes became accidentally caught, and in some instances perished as a result of unfit bird deterrent netting.”

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Tell us: have you spotted any netting to stop birds nesting? - RSPB

We would like your help exploring the practice of netting trees so they can be removed for construction

Guardian readers

Thu 28 Mar 2019 14.35 GMTLast modified on Fri 29 Mar 2019 12.50 GMT

The RSPB is urging the public to sign a petition to help change the law on the practice of bird netting in the UK.

 Are nets to stop swallows nesting any way to treat the natural world?

Across the UK there are reports of builders and developers using nets on trees to stop birds nesting so that they can be removed in order for building work to take place.

Developers have said it is “standard practice” in order to prevent birds from nesting in a habitat that might be damaged by building work. But the charity says it hopes the petition, which has so far gathered over 170,000 signatures, will result in netting being made illegal: “We cannot keep trying to squeeze nature into smaller and smaller spaces or demanding it fits in with our plans,” it says. “People around the country are dismayed to hear about cases where birds returning from long journeys are being deliberately excluded from sites where they might choose to raise their young.”

We would like to hear from you if you have seen bird netting where you live or work or taken pictures of it and acted. We will collate some of your contributions and feature some of them as part of our reporting.

How to share your story

To get in touch fill out the form below. There is also an option to upload photographs – please tell us where and when they were taken but do not take any legal or personal risks when doing so.

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Is it cruel to set up nets that prevent birds nesting?

Jeremy Vine and Chris Packham were among those protesting against a property developer’s use of nets in a hedge to keep birds away

Leo Benedictus

Mon 4 Mar 2019 18.29 GMT Last modified on Mon 4 Mar 2019 18.31 GMT

Abattle broke out at the weekend over a hedge in Lincolnshire. The hedge, near the town of Winterton, was covered in netting by Partner Construction, which has applied for planning permission to build 40 homes on the site. This is standard practice, the developer said, in order to prevent birds from nesting in a habitat that might be damaged if building work begins later in the year.

However, a group of local residents opposed to the development released a video showing birds trapped beneath the nets. Jeremy Vine and Chris Packham shared the footage, and their outrage, on Twitter. Packham said the nets showed “brutal ignorance” of how to look after the countryside, and said, if he were there, he would “rip those nets down”, in a tweet that has since disappeared. According to the Telegraph, some of the offending nets have now gone.

The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 makes it an offence to intentionally “take, damage or destroy” the nest of any wild bird while it is in use or being built. In theory, this even bans people from pruning their fruit trees if doing so harms a nest that they know is there. Any tree or hedge becomes a protected site the moment a bird settles in it, which it might do at any time from about February until August – potentially shutting down an entire construction site for the busy half of the year.

Many conservationists agree to compromise. Netting an empty tree or a bush in the winter is certainly better than making the birds look for a new site in the middle of the breeding season. “It’s not ideal,” says Martin Fowlie of the RSPB, “but it is legal, so when it has to be done, it’s important that it be done properly, which means checking for birds when the netting is fitted, and to keep checking it regularly. Birds are ingenious creatures, and they can often find a way to get under the edge of a net.”

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Fury as kittiwake appears to get trapped and dies in controversial netting on Newcastle Quayside

The endangered birds nest around the Tyne Bridge but some people claim they are getting stuck in the netting

Hannah Graham

14:15, 20 APR 2018

Bird lovers have been tweeting their fury after an endangered seabird was apparently trapped in controversial nets on Newcastle’s Quayside.

Wildlife photographer Alan Hewitt claims he spotted a dead kittiwake stuck in netting designed to discourage the birds from nesting on the front of Quayside buildings.

The Quayside’s famous kittiwake flock is unique, as the gulls usually nest and breed on the coast.

The roughly 800 breeding pairs, which inhabit the Tyne Bridge during the summer, are thought to be the only ones in the world which set up home as far as 13km away from the sea, feeding as far away as the Farne Islands.

But while they’re popular with bird watchers, many of the Quayside’s businesses seek to discourage kittiwakes from nesting on their property because of the mess and disruption they can cause.

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Bird Lovers Sue to Save Dying Swallows

Netting designed to keep the birds out of a bridge in Petaluma has instead been attracting -- and trapping -- the protected species.

By Karina Ioffee, Patch Editor

After watching swallows die en masse in Petaluma, bird lovers are fighting back.

Conservation and animal protection groups filed a lawsuit last week against the state and federal transportation agencies for failing to remove netting under the Highway 101 bridge they blame for killing more than 100 birds over the past month. 

The groups include Native Songbird Care, a Sebastopol-based nonprofit, Center for Biological Diversity, and the Madrone, Marin and Golden Gate Audubon societies. 

The netting was placed under the bridge earlier this spring to prevent cliff swallows from nesting there. The birds are federally protected and construction work cannot occur if they are found under a bridge, a favor nesting site for cliff swallows. The netting was placed in preparation for the Sonoma-Marin Narrows project.   

Instead of avoiding the spot, the birds continued to gather under the bridge, get entangled and die, according to the plaintiffs. The site is only accessible from the Petaluma River, although it can be seen from Petaluma Boulevard South. 

“Incompetence and indifference by Caltrans is killing swallows that have just travelled 6,000 miles to return to a traditional nesting site, which the agency should have known about,” said Jeff Miller, a conservation advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity. 

Caltrans could not be immediately reached. In early May, the agency said it had closed the gaps in the netting that were causing cliff swallows to get tangled and said biologists were inspecting work sites at the Petaluma River Bridge and the State Route 116 interchange. 

Cliff swallows are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and National Environmental Policy Act. Conservation activists say Caltrans should remove the netting completely and add Teflon coating to the side of the bridge to prevent the birds from landing there. 

The lawsuit was filed by the Cotati-based Animal Legal Defense Fund in federal court in the Northern District of California. The Washington, D.C. law firm Meyer, Glitzenstein & Crystal is assisting in the lawsuit.

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