I AM writing in response to the numerous letters regarding peregrines and other birds of prey you have received lately.

We live in a beautiful part of the country and the Forest of Dean is well known for its abundance of wildlife.

Yet it seems there are people who would be willing to eradicate some of our most amazing species, because they do not fit in with their view of country life.

There is room for all wildlife. The amazing thing about our wildlife is that it has the ability to adapt and control numbers when they are not being persecuted by we humans.

Peregrines kill pigeons, so lets get rid of them! Of course peregrines kill for food, same as we do, but they are not as wasteful as we are and only kill enough to eat. Birds of prey will not exert any more effort than they have to, to survive and spend much of their time just sitting around, so they will not kill for the sake of it and in response to E. Harvey of Mile End, there are around 1,500 breeding pairs of peregrine falcons (not 33,000); approx 40,000 pairs of sparrowhawks and 37,000 pairs of kestrels.

But there are 10.5 million cats in the UK, which will take 55 million birds a year. Maybe this is where our songbirds are going?

But, of course, we would not ask for cats to be eradicated because that would not be right.

Millions of songbirds die each year from starvation, disease or other forms of predation. So numbers lost to birds of prey are minimal. And, by the way E. Harvey, kestrels and sparrowhawks are not large enough to take pigeons. Wild boar have also come in for scrutiny but they were here first.

The reason we are seeing more sparrowhawks in our gardens is due to lack of natural habitat, that is why we see many kestrels along motorways as this undisturbed grassland is fantastic hunting ground for them.

If we want to help songbirds, lets protect habitat.

As for peregrines and wild boar being dangerous, we only have to look in the mirror to see the most dangerous animal on the planet!

There is room for all wildlife. For good or bad, they are here for a reason. – Paula Simpson, Clearwell.