In message , fenwoman
writes

Easynews wrote in message
...
Blaming predators for the decline of
songbirds is barking up the wrong tree- improve the habitat, make sure the
food sources are there (insects! yes, even for seed-eating birds in
summer)
and populations will do well, including birds of prey.

Of course spraying the garden to buggery just when the greenfly and
black fly and other small aphids emerge doesn't help. Songbirds need
insectivorous high protein foods to rear nestlings. When Mr and Mrs
Suburbia throw up their hands in horror at the sight of a few greenfly
on their precious roses, they rush for their can of chemicals. They can
always blame the decline of the songbird population on someone else
like cat owners/farmers/sqyuirrels/corvids and the like after all.

We have habitat (7 acres of our neighbour's derelict orchard behind us),
we put out food (of course the predators end up with some of it too,
squirrel-proof feeders notwithstanding), neither our garden nor the
orchard have been sprayed in some 30+ years, we're awash in greenfly and
caterpillars, we have lots of corvids and some pheasants (and squirrels
and foxes and deer and badgers...), hardly any cats, just our old tom
who is festooned like a morris dancer and isn't that interested in any
case - all that is missing are the birds we used to have...

--
Klara, Gatwick basin