Wildlife is alive and kicking (From Gazette Series)

Wildlife is alive and kicking

SIR - In reply to S R Grimes' rather despondent letter in last week's paper I would like to suggest that there is actually more wildlife present in the area I know than there was 20 years ago.

On my own smallholding buzzards and sparrowhawks that I certainly didn't see previously now have regularly visited me. Roe deer have made an appearance unfortunately among some young trees! I have a plentiful supply of small birds and last year for the first time I had a pair of crow's nest. There also seem to be quite a few voles and shrews rustling about in the hedgerows which then provide food for owls.

Now I cannot claim that my humble efforts at conservation have attracted this new wildlife. Particularly for the buzzards and hawks there has to be large areas of suitable habitat for them to live in and hunt over.

Clearly then the surrounding farms are making a difference too. It is always too easy to be gloomy about the environment but, if you look around you, things aren't as bad as people try to make out. Many farmers make great efforts towards the conservation of wildlife and it is a little unfair to make generalisations that are not always borne out by the facts.

The unfortunate problem with these doom and gloom letters is that they make people feel that everything is so bad it isn't worth bothering with. The reverse is true: a pond here, a bird box there and you can attract and keep wild life on any farm and, of course, garden.

Steven Tilley, White House Farm, Cambridge