Please stop the culling

An organisation called "Songbird Survival Trust" would appear, in my view, to have some very strange and mistaken ideas about the main reasons behind the decline in our songbird populations. The Trust is funding a cull of corvids to be carried out by the Game and Conservation Wildlife Trust in the hope that this will prove that culling will aid the recovery of songbird populations.

Suggestions and actions like this detract from the real main reasons for the decline of songbirds as shown by many scientific studies carried out by well respected bird organisations.

Songbirds and farmland bird species have declined in numbers because of agricultural intensification leading to habitat loss and degradation, loss of hedgerows, changes from spring to autumn arable crop sowing, increased pesticide and fertiliser use, loss of winter stubbles and a decline in mixed farming.

In other words songbirds are declining because of the impacts of human activity and not due to the behaviour of corvids.

I believe that to increase the songbird and farmland bird populations we need changes in woodland and farmland management to restore habitat and improve food supplies for bird species. Increasing the number of farmers that join the Higher Stewardship level (not just the Entry Level Stewardship)would also have a beneficial positive effect.

What also concerns me is that in the future the Songbird Survival Trust may start calling for a cull of birds of prey including protected species.

If you feel strongly about the proposed corvid cull please sign the petition at this website (many apologies for some reason I still can't seem to be able to insert links that work)



http://www.thepetitionsite.com/8/stop-the-cull-of-crows-and-magpies/

Many thanks to "Tales from a Wessex Reiver" who wrote an excellent post yesterday on this issue and drew it to my attention. See link on the right.