Dogs love to get off their leash to explore their surroundings – and surely there can be few dogs don’t enjoy retrieving a tennis ball!

However, dog walkers have been asked to take care because springtime brings with it the arrival of many migratory bird species – many of them ground-nesting – which travel thousands of miles to breed on nature reserves across our county. The nesting birds are vulnerable to disturbance between March and August.

Surrey Wildlife Trust (SWT) and the Dogs Trust are urging dog owners to take care when visiting nature reserves by keeping their pets on leads during the spring and summer. SWT also reminds owners to clean up after their pets, to help keep reserves in good condition.

Many dog owners are passionate about nature and want to avoid harming it. However, even the most well-behaved dogs can unintentionally cause distress or damage wildlife, simply by following their natural curiosity. Birds perceive dogs as predators and when dogs roam freely they can cause vitally important nests to fail and put bird populations at risk of decline.

Keeping dogs close by will help ensure that ground-nesting birds such as skylarks, woodcock and nightjars are not harmed during the breeding season. Unsupervised dogs can cause birds to abandon their nests, or can harm chicks, so it’s vital they are kept under control.

James Herd, director of reserves management at Surrey Wildlife Trust, said: “We want everyone to enjoy Surrey’s fabulous wild places, and dog walkers with under-control dogs are always welcome on our sites. But as well as being illegal to disturb nesting birds, it’s good practice to minimise the impact your canine friends have on wildlife.”

Be sure to clean up all your dog’s poo, which leaches unwelcome nutrients into soil and presents health risks to people and animals, including the cows and sheep that Surrey Wildlife Trust uses to maintain a healthy balance of vegetation on many sites, including Chobham and Whitmoor Commons.

James said: “Cleaning up your pet’s faeces keeps sensitive habitats safe from damaging disturbance and dangerous diseases like neosporosis, which pose a serious risk of aborted pregnancies in our conservation grazing animals. Sadly, we’ve seen this twice already in the spring 2025 calving period.”

See www.wildlifetrusts.org/dogs-and-nature for more information about responsible dog walking.

Finally, an apology: regular reader Dave Williamson pointed out there was a word missing in the introduction of my feature of 27 February about the reintroduction of the chequered skipper butterfly into Northamptonshire after it became extinct in England over 40 years ago.

Ashton village green and the Chequered Skipper pub (named after the butterfly) that I mentioned in the introduction were famously the home of the world conker championships for 45 years. Somehow I lost the word “conker” while editing the piece – sorry!

Dave suggested a general article about conkers and the horse chestnut tree which produces them. He added: “They have been used in medicine for treating vascular ailments, for example.” Thanks Dave – I’ll bear that idea in mind.

Dave also told me he has seen redwings (the subject of one of my other articles last month) foraging on the grass verges near Waitrose car park in Goldsworth Park. He said: “They’re really beautiful but, being ignorant about birds, I thought they were thrushes, so you've educated at least one reader!”

That’s great to know, Dave!