Sir –While hen harriers are unlikely to colonise Oxfordshire, they do try further north and Charles Nodder’s defence of gamekeepers is disingenuous (Letters, January 26).

In spring 2009, I spent a few days in the northern Peak District, walking across heather moorland that was ideal habitat for buzzard, hen harrier, merlin and peregrine. But there were absolutely no birds of prey and even ravens were absent; grouse, however, were super-abundant.

I was so shocked by this absence that when I got back I googled the question and found that the RSPB had been for years particularly concerned about persecution of raptors in that area, but had not been able to catch the culprits.

Nodder’s line that ‘no gamekeeper has been convicted for killing a hen harrier in recent years’ may well be true — the reason is that those that do kill birds of prey have become very good at covering their traces. The fact is that hen harriers do eat young grouse (among other prey) and for that reason unscrupulous gamekeepers target them, but on more enlightened grouse moors management is geared to minimising the conflict of interest.

In Oxfordshire, ‘infested’, as Christopher Gray sees it, with red kites, most of us would be horrified if they were being routinely poisoned or shot, instead of sailing majestically over our homes and gardens.

Why stick to persecuting birds of prey for doing what comes naturally? Pet cats, cold winters, plate glass windows and cars on roads kill birds too.

Dr Anthony Cheke, Oxford