HAVING never replied to an article or letter in a normally much enjoyed local paper, it has taken me two or three weeks to decide that a reply is necessary with reference to Mark Turner's (Ashton-under-Hill) report on birds of prey.

I am most disappointed at Mr Turner's enthusiasm for raptors. I, like many others, have for several years endeavoured to get over to those in officialdom the necessity of cancelling the present conservation policy on these birds, and allow nature to adopt its own control.

A lot is written and many questions asked about the demise of certain small song birds and the like and the poor old farmer has been made responsible by his use of pesticides and other poisons. I was therefore pleased to note that Mr Turner suggested that the buzzards and sparrowhawks' ability to 'bounce back' followed a ban of these particular pesticides.

If this is the case, then what is killing off the families of small birds? It cannot be the pesticides. Has Mark Turner thought that it could be the sparrowhawks, peregrines and buzzards? The sparrowhawk, for example, will eat about three finch like bird per day. Around my 20 acre plot raptor sightings suggest a possible three pairs here, so there is 18 song birds per day!

I hope Mr Turner and his committees relent and if readers agree with my comments, please do take it up with the necessary authorities to lobby for the protection to be removed. I understand that over 30,000 people responded to the RSPB January survey. I am sure a lot of those people will be associated with garden bird watching and know only too well the damage done by the current policy on birds of prey and in particular by the ever growing numbers of sparrowhawks.

I hear that in some districts peregrines and sparrowhawks are encouraged by providing them with prefab nests. If this is allowed to continue, the dawn chorus will no longer be!

C J WILLIAMS, Windy Ridge, Longborough, Moreton.