Goodness, how I ruffled feathers! (From The Oxford Times)

Goodness, how I ruffled feathers!

3:41pm Wednesday 7th December 2011 in Gray Matter By Christopher Gray

The appropriately named Dr A.U. Larkman, of the Oxford Ornithological Society, told readers of The Oxford Times letters page last week that “small bird declines are due to food shortages, not predation”. I take his word for it, though the blackbird I saw being borne away by a sparrow hawk might (were it part of a cognisant species) have a slightly different view.

Dr Larkman, and other correspondents, criticised me for accepting what was said on the matter by Robin Page, who for some reason got the inverted commas treatment as “naturalist” from ‘Nick’ Forster, of Old Headington.

Goodness, what animus Mr Page’s modest proposal for a cull of avian “killing machines” triggered in at least some of my readers (and I am always grateful of course that they are readers)!

And I didn’t even mention the red kites (pictured) which, from their base on the Gettys’ Wormsley estate, have now come to infest large parts of the surrounding counties.