Sir,
It’s ironic that the RSPB is busy promoting a song which highlights our declining bird populations (RSPB tell everybody this is their birdsong, Apr 26) on the same day their vice-president Chris Packham succeeded in pressurising Natural England into suspending licences that allow us to protect them. Bizarrely, he appears blissfully unaware that his own organisation relies on these licences just as much as others. RSPB reserves killed 784 crows to protect nests between 2014 and 2016. With predation now considered the main factor driving declines of species such as the curlew, with 70% of nests failing across Europe, this vital conservation work must swiftly restart before the only place we can hear the call of the curlew is on the radio.
Andrew Gilruth
Director of Communications