Letters: Singing out on loss of songbirds in New Forest
LIKE John Jubb of New Milton and PR Whitfield of South Baddesley (A&T Letters 18th August), I am concerned about the disappearance of small vulnerable birds.
My half-acre garden in Dibden Purlieu is less than 200 yards as the crow flies from a conifer plantation. It once rang to sounds of songbirds but now echoes to the raucous cries of crows and the calls of the occasional pigeon, while magpies can frequently be seen strutting on the lawn.
The few small birds which were present in the spring have disappeared, leaving one feisty robin with a very sharp beak who punches well above his weight.
Some time ago the Radio 4 programme Farming today had two speakers: a farmer who had successfully reintroduced ground nesting birds, and a university lecturer. Their message was “you can provide ideal conditions for vulnerable birds but unless you control the predators, specifically crows magpies and foxes their numbers will continue to decline”.
People who are opposed to control of predators, practised for generations, believe they have the moral high ground, but they are responsible for destroying the most iconic wildlife in the New Forest and its surrounding environment.
Chris Aldhous
Dibden Purlieu
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MR Whitfield is not happy with the goshawk population (A&T Letters 18th August) in the wood where he lives. I know that wood and have done for over 65 years, it is not in the New Forest and is on private land.
The goshawk has expanded in the New Forest to its current level, which at 45 pairs is at saturation point for the area.
There has been a huge decline in songbirds throughout this country, mostly caused by agricultural practice, and the huge number of people crammed into this tiny isle with their over-tidy plots, spraying their gardens with every chemical in the book.
The wood pigeon is ubiquitous throughout the area, and has actually expanded in numbers, the nightingale is common on the continent, but not here, and the goshawk is on the continent as well. The turtle dove again is not too badly off on the continent, but is nearly extinct here, due in the main to agricultural practice and over-hunting.
The white doves could have been taken by the male goshawk, who is smaller than the female, and takes jays and grey squirrels, but not hedgehogs. The female is a much larger bird, and will take rabbits and fox cubs.
No kites here, though they were common in London in medieval times, and were scavengers, but there could be a white tailed eagle or two, which might cast their shadow over Mr Whitfield’s wood.
CE Lock
Everton
