Sir, – How right Patrick Sleigh (The Scottish Farmer, June 16) is to draw attention to the serious problem of over abundant predators inflicting unsustainable losses on our ground nesting and other birds as a result of the protected status afforded to them.

It is high time that conservation bodies and governments worked together to address this escalating problem, rather than blaming farmers for the continuing decline in bird numbers.

The solution is simple and that is to lift the protected status of animals and birds where it simply cannot be justified any longer, due to the fact that their numbers have spiralled out of control and almost entirely as a result of them being afforded protected status.

Mr Sleigh is correct in stating that good conservation means culling, not eradication. It is all a question of restoring a balance which at present is totally out of kilter and, if the current status quo is allowed to continue, certain species will be facing almost certain extinction in the not too distant future.

Mr Sleigh draws attention in particular to the damage being done to ground nesting birds by badgers devouring their eggs. Attention has also been drawn recently to the alarming decline in hedgehog numbers in the countryside.

Since the numbers of badgers have rocketed from about 50,000 in the 1980s to well over 1m now and hedgehogs forming part of their diet, it does not require rocket science to establish the main reason for their abject decline.

Badgers are not the only culprits when it comes to predation by protected species. Buzzards provide another example of over protection where their numbers have increased to such an extent that they are now the UK’s most common bird of prey, accounting for untold numbers of chicks of vulnerable ground nesting birds.

It is no good people wringing their hands, blaming farmers and saying that nature should be allowed to take its course. There has been no self

-regulating eco system since time immemorial and this is simply not going to happen.

While the present situation is allowed to drift on, thousands of farmland and other songbirds are perishing on a daily basis at the claws or talons of protected predators. Action needs to be taken as a matter of urgency but this can only happen through governments, supported by conservation bodies and the public, having the courage and common sense to intervene.

Colin Strang Steel

Trustee SongBird Survival,

Threepwood,

Galashiels.