Predation on Artificial Nests Adjacent to Forestry Plantations in Northern Scotland

Abstract
This work was designed to assess the possibility that conifer plantations have effects on birds of adjacent unplanted moorlands. An experimental investigation of predation was undertaken using chicken eggs placed on open moorland at different distances from the forest. Predation levels were higher near to the forest than further away, but once the effects of vegetation differences were statistically removed there remained no significant effect of distance alone on predation level. These results suggest that predation levels on the nests of ground-nesting birds are not strongly influenced by plantation proximity in northern Scotland.