SAN DIEGO — Spring has sprung in San Diego and so are the branches of the trees.
It may seem like this is a good time to do some trimming, Jim Peugh, with the San Diego Audubon Society, makes it clear that spring is not the time of year to trim your trees.
"It's a violation of Federal and State law and it's also a loss of wildlife," Peugh said. "You hate to make a mistake; you really hate to see a bunch of broken bird eggs on your driveway."
This is the time of year when birds are looking to build nests to lay their eggs and raise a family. It's also when trees are sprout new growth making it harder to spot the birds.
"That's really an unfortunate coincidence. The time trees are sprouting out is also the time that birds are building nests in trees and laying eggs and that's a real conflict," he said.
Peugh says it's nearly impossible for the untrained eye to spot a nest in a tree. "The birds are working really hard to camouflage their nests. They don't want predators to find it which makes it hard for us to see it."
The best time to trim trees for birds and the health of your trees is late fall through early winter. this is the time of year when trees go into a dormant stage and handle trimming much better and birds are not looking to nest.
"I've seen that you're supposed to trim after September and before January to be absolutely safe," he said. "If it's in the case of safety or fire risk and you have to do the trimming, then you have to be super careful and look everywhere a nest might be."
Even then, if it's a big tree you might want to hire a pro to take a look to be sure there are no nests.
"A lot of the birds are so tricky that they won't come into their nest from the same direction, they're fooling predators and they're fooling you."