There's been a flurry of publicity for Songbird Survival over the last week - mostly in The Times. This organisation, which I always think as being more anti-predator than pro-songbird, and anti-raptor in particular (but maybe I have got them wrong), may be funding the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust to cull some crows and see whether songbirds flourish. Good luck to them - but I hope they take more notice of this research than they did of the research that they commissioned from the BTO which went some way to exonerate predators from being the cause of songbird declines. That study doesn't seem to have altered Songbird Survival's views at all.
The Chair of Songbird Survival is Lord Coke. Lord Coke hails from Holkham Hall. The head gamekeeper at Holkham Hall was charged with several offences, including some under the Wildlife and Countryside Act, last week. This has led to some interesting comments in some places (see here for example). Lord Coke's father, the Earl of Leicester, is not the biggest fan of birds of prey, nor indeed of the RSPB. As I say, interesting.
The article in the Independent makes the link between the head 'keeper being charged and the fate of the Holkham National Nature reserve. That's an interesting point too.
A love of the natural world demonstrates that a person is a cultured inhabitant of planet Earth.
One predator above all others, the domestic cat, of which there are an estimated eight million in the UK, are responsible for killing more song birds than all the other avian predators like the sparrow hawk and kestrel put together.
Another interesting thought, why is that specific song birds for example the song-thrush has declined drastically over the last 20 - 30 years compared to other song bird species. Raptors like the sparrow hawk are non selective in their choice of song birds, therefore one would expect the decline of song bird numbers if due to raptor predation would be consistent in all song birds species!
Terry Pickford
North West Raptor Group
Britain's Birds of Prey need your protection now. Make your voice heard.
Terry R.Pickford