MANY farmers, landowners and country people will find much to agree with in Colin Strang Steel's letter on page 10 regarding the decline of the UK's song-bird population.
As many who live and work in the countryside know, there are many factors at work in the decline of song-birds and none more so than the seemingly endless progress of predators, from cats to foxes and sparrowhawks to badgers. Lynx could be next!
It is not enough for the RSPB and desktop eco warriors, like Chris Packham (seemingly sponsored by the BBC) to continually trot out the old lines of attack such as 'caused by changes in farming practices' or 'indiscriminate use of agricultural chemicals' as being to blame.
This has never been a more regulated industry. Unfortunately, this also applies to predator control which has become, literally, a breeding ground for further song-bird decline. 
If, for once, the Packhams of this world came out and said that the UK cat population had something to do with bird decline too, then maybe we would listen to them. I can understand why the RSPB wouldn't do it, because it relies very much on the 'blue rinse' brigade who supply it with money, yet it is a proven fact that domestic and semi-feral cats are one of the single biggest killers of garden birds.
Alas, over-regulation means that gamekeepers and farmers who wish to control predators are now so scared to do what needs to be done, that it ends up not being done at all, much to the detriment of the lamented song-bird.
It's time that everyone involved in this country's rich biodiversity got together and whacked out a sensible package of reforms to control predation and encourage endangered wildlife to flourish. And maybe time that those in Holyrood listened less to the chattering classes of Edinburgh and actually got out into the country to talk to those who really know!