Last night Linda and I accompanied good friends Sue, Peter, Joyce and Andrew to a lecture by 'Songbird Survival', a registered charity that states that its major aim is to promote more rigorous investigation of the causes of the decline of our resident songbirds. So far, so good...
Now I'm no apologist for cats and their predatory habits, but the speaker continually called for 'the guilty cat-owners to put their hands up.' He must have repeated this half a dozen times, thus alienating a fair percentage of the audience. (No mention of the problems caused by unleashed dogs on beaches and bird reserves!)
The speaker failed to acknowledge or address several points raised by the audience (shooting / trapping of migratory birds, over-use of agrochemicals, illegal keepering / grouse moor 'management' etc) preferring instead to suggest that the way forward was to cull predators such as foxes, badgers and Grey Squirrels. He continued by claiming that 'scientific evidence' proved that all Corvids, Muntjac Deer, Sparrowhawks and Hedgehogs were major factors in songbird decline and should be culled or eliminated!
The gentleman displayed several slides of himself chatting with ex-PM Cameron, and said enough to suggest that he was broadly in agreement with the policies of the 'Countryside Alliance'.
If conserving songbirds means eradicating raptors, I want no part in it....
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