Dog walking awareness in the uplands

Dog Walkers

Dog Walkers Early June 2018 I went to have a week in North Uist and not un-naturally I went to the RSPB reserve at Balranald. The approach road to the reserve is tarmac, fenced both sides and there are a lot of waders along it, Lapwings, Oystercatchers, Redshank and Snipe. At the visitor centre you may well hear a Corncrake and a Corn Bunting, on leaving the visitor centre there are more Lapwings and Oyster catchers. The road goes over a slight hill and bends to the left to more open fields where you might expect to see even more waders but there were none for about half a mile, then a Corn Bunting can be heard and waders come more apparent. There were plenty of Dunlin and Sanderling on the shore sifting through the seaweed with Herring Gulls, Common Gulls, a few Black Headed Gulls and an Iceland Gull. Through the kissing gate and there are plenty of birds, Gulls Terns and Waders, just the sort of density I had come to North Uist to see. I went along the track past the visitor centre 3 times. On the third time, about 6pm, I was overtaken by a car, I walked over the hill and there was a black Labrador dog on the track which surprised me, a few moments later I heard a whistle, it was the man in the black Dacia Duster whistling his dog, the car went on and after 4 or 500 yards turned right up a track over the hill. Every evening this man took the same route to exercise his dog, no wonder there were no birds. One day I went to Berneray as I had been very impressed by all the waders on the machair there on a previous visit. I drove out of the village down on the flat, over the cattle grid along the tarmac road out towards the cemetery but was surprised how few birds there were. After a mile and before the cemetery there is a little used track across the machair which I drove on, here the machair was heaving with birds, Lapwings, Oystercatchers, Dunlin, Ringed Plover, Redshank and Arctic Terns. I put the difference down to just too many people. After my tour of the machair I went for a late lunch. The machair was so good that after lunch I went back to it. I stopped near the cattle grid to take some photos and while I was doing that a car came and parked up, 2 collie dogs and a lady got out and the lady started to walk along the tarmac road, one dog lept across the cattle grid, the other followed the lady through the kissing gate and then both dogs were off at high speed across the machair. I thought for a few moments and then went after the lady and explained to her that this was probably the best place in the UK for ground nesting birds, her dogs were disturbing these birds and maybe even killing a few chicks. At that she exploded, saying that her dogs were not hunting dogs and they are certainly not killing any birds finishing up by saying if I was just a visitor I hope you never come here again. Most of us know that dogs not on a lead are bad for wildlife especially in the spring and summer but we seldom see what they do. Densities of ground nesting birds are usually pretty low anyway and so you don’t know whether it is dogs or just a lack of wildlife but here on the machair there was such a stark difference between where the dogs were roaming and where they didn’t get to was a real eye opener to me. I have talked to dog owners before about this and they have all been adamant that their dogs are not hunting dogs even when they are springer spaniels and usually been quite cross with me suggesting that their dogs might do harm to wild life. Scottish Natural Heritage are paying the farmers on the machair about £300 an acre to enhance our diminishing wildlife and these people walking dogs without leads are destroying all the ground nesting birds. We must all work together in educating these people and keeping all dogs off our wildlife reserves. Willow Tree Fen nature reserve in South Lincolnshire had become quite a dog walkers paradise, the warden had a real problem with them but a pair of Cranes arrived to breed and so the reserve was shut. After a year the warden said the increase in wildlife after a year without people and dogs is amazing. Nicholas Watts