Reprieve for nesting hawks as tree felling halted

Environmentalists are calling for more care to be taken over tree-felling plans after intervening at a site where a cedar is home to a nesting pair of sparrowhawks.

On Tuesday, protesters arrived at London Road Cemetery in Coventry to find an area surrounding the large cedar had been cordoned off in preparation for cutting down. The city council deemed the tree at risk of falling.

Perched in the branches were a sparrowhawk pair tending to a nest, which protesters said should have been obvious to anyone inspecting the tree.

Council officers and police were called to the scene, which resulted in tree surgeons, contracted by the local authority, putting down their tools.

The council said: "We are very aware of our duty to conserve biodiversity and that it is a criminal offence to destroy or disturb an active bird nest."

The authority confirmed work was halted after protesters contacted them, and no further action would be carried out on the tree until the end of the nesting season.

But one protester who was at the scene on Tuesday said there was concern it was nearly too late to save the birds, and if the intervention had come any later, the nest would be lost.

Lower limbs of the tree had already been cut before the full felling was halted.

The Warwickshire/Midlands Wildlife and Nature Matters group member said of workers: "They didn't even know the sparrowhawk nest was in there. If we could see it as members of the public, then why couldn't the contractors - who supposedly have trained ecologists with them - check trees properly before carrying out any cutting?"

Despite the reprieve for the sparrowhawks, it was too late for woodpeckers, the wildlife enthusiast added.

"There were quite a few runners and dog walkers passing by [the scene] asking 'what's happened to our woodpeckers'?

"They're the ones who have been seeing them every day, so they're quite devastated that they're gone."

A council spokesperson said: "We expect our contractor to undertake a wildlife check as part of their dynamic risk assessment before carrying out any works on our behalf.

"We understand this check was completed with no sign of a nest found. However, when concerns were raised with us on site, we instructed the work to be halted."

Campaigners said thy would like to see every tree surgeon go on a course to identify evidence of bird nesting.

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