January 2024 by R L (Rach)
Company have no concern for wildlife legislation or welfare. Turned up at my place of work last May and started blocking off active swallow nests. When approached the member of staff said "He has 24 hours after the swallows arrive to block off before they start nesting". When I informed him the swallows had been documented back at the premises since April, he then stated "he isn't carrying out any illegal works as long as no eggs are laid yet" and continued to insist this despite the wildlife and countryside act clearly stating it is illegal to disturb any active nest irregardless of eggs being laid yet. With this particular colony nest building had well commenced. This continued until the involvement of wildlife rescue professionals was mentioned to him (they had been contacted and confirmed works were illegal), and only at this point he decided to stop drilling work directly beneath active nests and come back at the end of the year when the swallows will have left, as a "courtesy". A wildlife Crime Report was logged with all swallow documentation and recent feedback confirm that the company have been spoken to and officially informed that what they were doing was illegal, and had they continued they could have faced a hefty fine. My concern now is that this company have not infact returned back at the end of the year to complete fiting the netting. I can only hope that we do not get a repeat of last year where they turn up when the birds have arrived back and started building again from April. In addition, with regards to the "no eggs laid yet" comment by staff, one bird had hatched eggs within the week and was actively feeding, confirming that eggs were in fact present at the time the company commenced with the disturbances.
