Save the birds

The severe winter of 2010 has had an impact on bird populations but the startling decline in some species goes far beyond anything inflicted by unusually hard weather.

The number of species under threat has almost doubled since the last survey. Among the 13 species in jeopardy — just eight previously — are curlews. This iconic wader has undergone a huge population collapse in the last decade. There are only an estimated 200 pairs of this once common bird left in the country. Barn owls are down to fewer than 300 pairs.

Though there are occasionally other reasons, human activity — and feral cats — is largely responsible for these declines, and we are obliged to try to save these species. There must be some way of mobilising the latent goodwill in more or less every parish in the country on these matters.