YORKSHIRE Wildlife Trust is urging dog owners to keep their pets on leads during visits to woodlands and the wider countryside.

The trust – whose nature reserves include Low Wood, Riddlesden – says unsupervised dogs can unintentionally cause harm to ground-nesting birds such as skylarks, lapwings, meadow pipits and woodcock, as well as other species that nest close to the ground.

Becky Dennison, for the trust, says: "Nesting and fledgling birds are particularly vulnerable to disturbance.

"The eggs of the willow warbler for example are so tiny they can be snaffled up or crushed in a moment, and scaring a bird away from its eggs in poor or cold weather can lead to the eggs or chicks chilling to death very quickly.

"We implore everyone to please keep your dogs on leads, especially in spring when wildlife is at its most vulnerable; please do not allow them to run through woodland undergrowth and out of sight or there is a very real risk that our spring woods could fall silent from much of their most beautiful birdsong."

Dogs are prohibited from some trust reserves, including Low Wood.

For more about the reserve, alongside the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, visit ywt.org.uk/nature-reserves/low-wood-nature-reserve