AS do many of your readers, I enjoy Rob Ward's regular contributions to your newspaper.

However I would ask him not to knock the Songbird Survival organisation. I am a subscribing member of the British Trust for Ornithology and they list very many reasons for the decline of our songbirds.

In our Forest and many parts of other rural counties, change of habitat is hardly a serious factor and farmers must be sick to the teeth of the blame thrown at them by RSPB and a blinkered section of their membership.

Their deliberate resettling in city centres and over forest and farmland of peregrine falcons, red kites, goshawks, eagle owls and other predatory birds can hardly be blamed on the farming community.

BTO say that corvids (crows, magpies etc.) have dramatically increased in numbers whilst the number of songbirds has fallen alarmingly in recent years and in their 'Winter 2011 Garden Count', the magpie and great spotted woodpecker are listed as more frequent garden visitors than our song thrush!

Both the former are known nest raiders.  All bird lovers are aware of the devastation caused to songbirds by crows, magpies and cats, and there is little merit in condemning a group of songbird enthusiasts for  their drive to increase funding in the same way as other groups.

Most Songbird Survival members also "have personal views based on long experience". Some are nationally recognised experts, and many are even cat lovers!

–  Dave Browning, Broadwell.