I cringe every time I see blades thrashing through roadside shrubs in the middle of bird nesting season.
I understand that mowing needs to be done now when the grass is high, but can we please prune, hack, tear and remove woody shrubs in the off season when nesting birds won’t be displaced or killed? There are eight months when these migrant birds are gone, roughly August to March.
Last week on Old Mill Road in Hopewell Township, where it runs along a Bald Eagle nesting preserve, there was a thick shrub border with willow flycatchers singing in it. Now there are remnants of hacked, twisted or sawn off shrubs, and in the wake of this clearing a freshly killed catbird in the grass, probably trying to protect a nest.
I am all for the pruning and removal of invasive shrubs, but can we please do it at a less destructive time of year?
Thank you for any efforts the road crews can make all over New Jersey.
I understand that mowing needs to be done now when the grass is high, but can we please prune, hack, tear and remove woody shrubs in the off season when nesting birds won’t be displaced or killed? There are eight months when these migrant birds are gone, roughly August to March.
Last week on Old Mill Road in Hopewell Township, where it runs along a Bald Eagle nesting preserve, there was a thick shrub border with willow flycatchers singing in it. Now there are remnants of hacked, twisted or sawn off shrubs, and in the wake of this clearing a freshly killed catbird in the grass, probably trying to protect a nest.
I am all for the pruning and removal of invasive shrubs, but can we please do it at a less destructive time of year?
Thank you for any efforts the road crews can make all over New Jersey.
Judy Clark
Princeton
Princeton