Latest Tweet

Saturday 5 July 2008

Water towers and wildlife


There are bat boxes in a number of water towers in the UK placed by the Bat Conservation Trust. Now it seems if Suffolk's water towers can have a role in increasing the population of peregrine falcons which are wonderful birds that keep the pigeon population in check. Pigeon droppings and corpses are a real nuisance in water towers. Even though they can be kept out of the water itself, it's a foul job cleaning up after them with access quite difficult in these circumstances. So if falcons can keep the pigeons away, they are very useful to water tower keepers.

The Suffolk Ornithologists' Group helped provide a nestbox on the Orwell Bridge in the 1990s and with that success, is now planning to expand the scheme across the county. It is looking for sites and approaching owners of water towers and other tall structures where the birds can nest undisturbed.

No comments: