A lapwing

A national park authority is pleading with walkers to help keep disturbance to nesting birds to a minimum.

In particular, walkers with dogs are being asked to keep them on a short lead and stick to tracks and paths as the nesting season begins on the heather moorlands of the North York Moors. The season runs from now until the end of July.

Sarah Blakemore, the national park authority’s access officer, said: “The North York Moors is a special place for wildlife, in particular birds such as lapwing, curlew and snipe which nest on the ground.

“Unfortunately due to several different factors, the numbers of many of these birds are declining in other parts of the country and we don’t want that to happen here. We hope therefore that people will do their bit to encourage these birds to breed in the national park by keeping their dogs on short leads when walking on the moors.”

Advice from the authority is that, if walkers encounter any nests, they should move away from them quickly to allow the parent birds to return.

The right to roam for walkers on access land is not extended to those with dogs on large tracts of the North York Moors, which places restrictions on dogs on much of its 44,000ha (108,726 acres) of heather moorland, which covers a third of the national park’s area.

Disturbance by people and dogs can scare birds away from their nests meaning that the eggs or chicks become cold and leaving them vulnerable to attack by predators.

A leaflet containing a new code for responsible access with dogs in the North York Moors will be available shortly and advice is also available on the North York Moors National Park Authority’s website.

The authority also intends to set up information on ‘dog welcome’ areas where people can exercise their dogs more freely. This should be available on the site in May.