Dog Gone

A study, from the University of Valencia (Spain), confirms that dogs are especially effective at scaring ground nesting, coastal birds away from their breeding sites (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/nov/14/study-adds-to-calls-to-ban-dogs-from-beaches-during-nesting-season-birds). Such birds ignored motorbikes, helicopters or even low flying planes but fled at the approach of a walker with a dog. The study showed that, walkers with dogs, were more than 4 times as likely to drive birds away than solo people. Pretty obviously, this type of disturbance makes effective breeding of birds that nest in groups, very difficult (numbers of many species are declining). The natural conclusion is that dogs should be banned from nesting locations, at times when coastal birds are breeding. Walkers and dogs are already banned from some UK locations at this time.