IN reply to P Webster (Letters, May 25) who says that the claims about sparrowhawks are exaggerated, in 1991 a British Trust of Ornithology survey stated there were 32,000 pairs of sparrowhawks and 32,000 unattached ones.

They each need to eat three songbirds a day to survive - five when they are feeding young - which means the death of approximately 1,000 a year for each sparrowhawk or 90 million songbirds lost in a year.

Seeing as we are nearly into the year 2000, these birds by now will have paired up and had young and their young will have paired up and had still more young which, to me, adds up to an awful lot of hawks. But who are they blaming for the demise of the songbird? The poor old farmer. Apparently, it is his fault they are diminishing fast, not a word is said about the hawks which are now at record levels.

And as for spoiling people's fun, would you like your hobby decimated in the way hawks are doing to the pigeon fanciers'?

I bet you would be soon up in arms and shouting the odds!

C TAYLOR (Mr), Chestnuts, Downham, Clitheroe.

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