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| The shelduck and Brent geese are too far away, so this purposeful canine targets a carrion crow |
URGENT memo to dog-owners - please don't run your pets at birds feeding on Cleethorpes Beach!
The appeal comes from the co-founder and chairman of a campaigning international charity, Wader Quest, which was set up to fly the flag for shorebirds - many species of which are declining so rapidly that their survival is now at risk.
Says WQ's Rick Simpson: "The Humber Estuary is very important as a feeding habitat for migrating and over-wintering shorebirds such as godwits, plovers, dunlin, oystercatchers, sanderlings and at least four species of gull.
"To maintain their energy, these birds need to be able to feed undisturbed.
"Life becomes very difficult when they are endlessly being chased by free-running dogs."
The mudflats at Pyewipe and the whole of Cleethorpes Beach, between the pier and the leisure centre, are reckoned to be among the best places in the UK to see shorebirds which use their long bills to probe for lugworms or whatever else is available.
Birders and wildlife-watchers travel long distances to watch them, especially for an hour on either side of high tide when they are higher up the beach, often providing fantastic close-up views.
But the period around high tide, the time when their feeding habitat becomes constrained by the incoming sea, is also when they are most vulnerable to being harassed by off-the-lead dogs, great and small but perhaps especially gundogs such as spaniels.
Such is the huge canine presence at weekends that some of the birds can scarcely feed for more than a few seconds before they are frightened into flight by the approaching sight and sound of scampering paws.
Although the birds are seldom caught, their wellbeing is undermined by loss of feeding time.
The boss of Wader Quest is not alone in voicing dismay at what is happening.
The same refrain is also regularly sounded by other organisations such as Natural England, the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust, the RSPB and the Lincolnshire Bird Club.
North East Lincolnshire Council, too, is aware of the problem, and its interpretive display panel near the pier appeals for dog owners and others to show consideration for the welfare of waders and other Cleethorpes-loving shorebirds such as shelduck and Brent geese.
* Wader Quest is at: https://www.waderquest.net
** Every birder's worst nightmare! Rick Simpson's highly entertaining new book, A Quest for Waders, co-compiled with wife Elis, is reviewed (with a discount offer) at The Wryneck
The Grimsby News says: There are reckoned to be about nine million dogs in the UK, and, especially, on fine weekends, it sometimes seems as of most of them are on Cleethorpes Beach. In fairness, to their owners, most, being animal-lovers, are probably totally oblivious to the distress caused to shorebirds by their pets. What's so wrong about them wanting to exult in seeing their animals at exuberant play, of which putting birds to flight is a part? That will most likely be their line of thought. However, conservation bodies have a valid point. In a hostile, climate-changing world with ever-reducing habitat, shorebirds - once memorably described as "twinkling gems on a falling tide" - need all the help and protection they can get. To safeguard their welfare is surely our moral duty. Is it too much to ask dog-owners to keep their pets on a lead, at least when they within the proximity of these delightful birds?
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| This godwit escaped a canine's jaws, but, with a damaged wing, it will soon perish     |
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