.....and I got "bird" in there as well!

Getting back to the point...



I've been in contact with the RSPB with a few questions and here are the answers.



Q. I'm interested in find any information relating to how wintering waders are

effected by disturbances such as planes, kites, dogs, windsurfers, horses

and any other lesiure activities. Could you please point me in the right

direction to any relevant information relating to the above.



A. This is a question I have encountered before and I am not aware of any

research on this subject. I know that air traffic is only a problem if

pilots are not honouring height restrictions. Our wardens at Rye Meads are

always complaining about microlights flying too low over the reed beds.

However, the problem is mostly one of summer activities impacting on

breeding birds rather than disturbance to wintering birds. Windsurfing

activities would largely be away from habitats favoured by wintering waders.

Indeed exercising dogs and horses would possibly be much more likely to

cause disturbance at high tide roosts rather than the feeding areas, which

are mostly on soft substrates.



Q. I have been told by some bird watchers that the birds will

fly around until they are exhausted and then die or will they just find

another roost? How much energy is lost and is this detrimental to the birds

survival?



A. The birds would not fly around until they are exhausted but there is a

chance that they would abandon traditional wintering sites with continuous

disturbance. The species that you are considering are large scale migrants

and they are capable of moving onto other areas although this could increase

stress on the environmental resources. Disturbance could potentially cause a

waste of energy that would be critical during a harsh winter although that

rarely happens. All this does not say that disturbance is acceptable or that

we should be inflicting this on the birds.



Q. In your opinion do you think that a wadding bird would mistake a

very large kite for a bird of prey? and do birds become de-sensitised to

such disturbances?



A. It depends on the shape of the kite and the direction it is travelling in.

Research showed that birds would react to a general shape of wing forward

and tail behind because of the resemblance to a raptor. However, the same

shape travelling in the other direction was reminiscent of a goose and this

did not invoke a reaction. A standard kite design probably would not cause

any reaction.





Well from all that I don't think the wardens can really say that the ocasional disturbance from windsurfers or kitesurfers is really going to effect in the long term the migratory birds that roost on the beach at West Kirby.



Should we now push for the channel as suggested armed with this information?

Excellent stuff Mr Cookie Monster !



My initial reaction is to tell them to stuff it and for us to sail wherever we want, however the pragmatic solution would be to to offer some sort of self regulation and offer 'a designated channel'. I'm glad that the RSPB answers where in line with my Dad's responses on the same subject. All add's weight to the argument.



We still however need to provide a united front and to contact the warden...etc. I tryied on the e-mail you suggested the other day and got an error. Is it correct ?



Ern.

Would it be feasable to put together a club through people signing up on here? That would probably be the quickest way of getting together a representative group of riders from both sports.

It seems that the twitchers have stolen a bit of a lead on us through putting together this report (I use the term loosly) without any talks or negotiation with us. If we are to be effective we must act soon, or we could possibly end up with the type of ban that has been proposed, while the Council "reviews" the situation.

To answer Ernie first yeh I got the same error so I'm going to ring up when I get a chance and find the real e-mail address.



As to the second question from TrustNoOne, well over to you Bert and Ernie would it be possible to put a place on this site where people can simply sign up to show that they are interested in providing a united front to this problem. I'm not saying either of you should be involved organising it further than that.



I will send a letter however to start the ball rolling suggesting a channel for us to use on big tides and South westerlies and use the information provided by the RSPB to back this arguement up. Any further suggestions would be very welcome.

I'm sure we can arrange something on the site quite quickly - I'll put my thinking cap on.

It could be as easy as creating a new forum area and everyone who wants to 'sign the petition' make a post saying so - or do we think something more bespoke is required ?

I can't help feeling though that we should get something a little more concrete like a proper petition (i.e. bits of paper) or similar. Does anyone have a timescale on this - would the car boot sale coming up in two/three weeks time be OK ??



Let me know your thoughts,

Bert