UKH

Anyone know what is going on with the bird restrictions at  Hen Cloud?

According to rad:

Seasonal Restrictions

Dates: 26 March to 30 June

Reason: Nesting Birds

The climbing restriction extends from Nutted By Reality to Easy Come inclusive. Please also avoid walking above the restricted area of the crag.

On site today from outside the restricted zone I couldn't see any signs & plenty of people seem to be logging routes within the restricted area so is there not a restiction this year and RAD needs updating or are people climbers flouting the restictions in large numbers?

My guess is there is no restriction this year, as I imagine it was well signed last year (few/no logs during that period) and I'm sure it would have been flagged by now. I've contacted Staffordshire Wildlife Trust to confirm though, just in case. I'll post back here when I hear back.

Thanks for following this up.

Not sure if this is still the case but (a few) years ago, whenever the Peregrines were nesting at Hen Cloud, there was usually someone below "watching" (maybe just at weekends) to ensure people weren't disturbing the birds.

Nobody "watching" might well mean no nesting there this year ☹

I was told by a nice guy from the rspb who kindly told me off for climbing there a few weeks ago that peregrines have not nested there for a few years, so there have not been the regular 'watchers'.

I would imagine that if there are no peregrines yet, it's probably too late now, but I don't want to promote breaking the rules of they do stand.

Almost certainly is too late.

But, they won't nest somewhere that has too much activity for their liking, so really we need to avoid these locations during the earlier period when birds are deciding where to nest. That's a bit more difficult to do because:

1. There are more potential locations than actual nest sites that get used in any year.
2. It would require restrictions over a longer time - less acceptable to the public (including us) and more work to "police".
3. I don't think the law as it stands (I may be wrong on this) would be able to prosecute someone who disturbed birds "only" to the extent that they chose to nest elsewhere (when there's no actual nest at the "disturbed" site).

Just heard back from Staffs WT who confirmed there are no Peregrines nesting this year. RAD is now up to date. 

Thanks, for sorting this hopefully will get over there again soon.

@UKC although RAD on the BMC website has updated, for some reason it is still showing as being restricted.