Nesting dates of Moorland Birds in the English Uplands

A common form of land management in the English uplands is burning of vegetation on a rotational basis and this is regulated by the Heather & Grass Burning Regulations. The time period for when burning may be carried out is 1 October - 15 April. A primary aim of the regulation of vegetation burning is to protect nesting birds. Increasingly, heather cutting is also used to manage vegetation and is generally carried out in the same period as burning. Changing seasons associated with a warming climate appears to be leading to earlier nesting dates. Nesting dates in the uplands was first investigated by BTO in 2005 and Natural England aims to repeat this analysis in order to establish whether the current dates for allowing burning of vegetation remain robust.