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Part of a letter in The Times on 17 July under the heading Birds of Prey is relevant to the Sparrowhawk problem that some of us have been discussing in the village forum .
Birds of Prey
......Modern studies have recently shown that prey numbers can drop alarmingly when increasing numbers of different predators feed on the same species.
In the past 40 years many prey species of garden and farmland birds have dropped in numbers by an average of 60%--and some as much as 97%. Habitat loss, pollution, bad weather and continental shooting have all been important factors but nowadays uncontrolled predation has overtaken many of the former dangers facing small birds.
Predator numbers, both mammalian and avian, have rocketed, and legal controls of magpies, foxes, crows, grey squirrels, etc have not kept pace with their population growth at the expense of diminishing prey species. Raptors, especially sparrowhawks (116% increase) and buzzards (414% increase) are literally eating into prey populations.
Our charity is campaigning on the issue and has commissioned scientific research to demonstrate that imbalance is rife in our managed countryside and that more attention must be paid to controlling---not eradicating--native predator numbers.
KEITH McDOUDALL
Policy Director, Songbird Survival
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