30 May 2006

Many protected and notable wild species have colonised "brownfield" land. Pre-development ecological inspection is essential.

A recent report from Birkbeck, University of London has highlighted what most of us have known for years. Will we take notice and do something this time?

We have been grumbling about the predation of song birds by grey squirrels and cats in Britain for many, many years. Chris Betts can just remember when there were still red squirrels in England’s Wyre Forest, over fifty years ago when he was very young – but in a few years after that only greys were there and there was clear evidence of their deadly toll on birds’ eggs and fledglings. Cats appeared in the countryside, left in large numbers by people who thought it was “kinder” to release unwanted pets in a rural area than take the responsibility for them. Grey squirrels and cats do what they do - it isn’t their fault. But if we want our songbirds to return, we have to eliminate the grey squirrel from Britain, and we have to control our pet cats as well as removing those that have become feral from the countryside.

We have all been refusing to bite this particular bullet for far too long. Blackbird, song thrush, blue tit, great tit, robin, skylark, meadow pipit, wren, dunnock, whitethroat, greenfinch, chaffinch, yellowhammer, reed bunting and corn bunting are the song bird species that have suffered, but many other small birds are just as prone to attack. Come on DEFRA – here’s an opportunity to do something really useful! We want our songbirds back!