One sunny summer morning I was woken by the shrill “chink, chink, chink” alarm call of a Blackbird. It grew louder and louder until I could contain my curiosity no longer. I got up and peered through the window to find a pair of Blackbirds in some distress watching Crows rob their nest in a neighbour’s garden of all its juveniles and eggs.

Crows, of course, have their own young to feed and realists appreciate this is just a harsh reminder of how nature works.

These black-garbed harbingers of doom have been much in the news recently as verbal war erupted between farmers and conservationists. The conservationists, led by television presenter Chris Packham, pressured Natural England into changing rules, making it more time consuming and complicated to obtain shooting licences for so-called “pest” birds like Crows, Magpies, Rooks, Jackdaws, Jays, Pigeons and Canada Geese.

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This was done at short notice leaving farmers livid with rage. They complained Crows were attacking lambs and Pigeons severely damaging crops. Being unable to control these birds would have severe consequences for farmers, they said. And failing to control Crows and Magpies would mean more songbirds falling prey to them.

I wonder if Mr Packham and his colleagues at Wild Justice thought through their actions and the adverse affect it may have on songbird populations by allowing more “pest” birds to survive. Similarly there seems a whiff of hypocrisy on the farmers side. Are these the same farmers who cared little for songbirds when they ripped out miles of bird-friendly hedgerow so giant machines could run rampant on the new farm “prairies” and indiscriminately sprayed insecticide, producing poisonous run-off washed into rivers by rain ? Yellowhammer, Corn Bunting, Grey Partridge and Turtle Dove populations plummeted.

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So who is right ? Should we preserve all birds at the cost of others or give nature a nudge in what we perceive as the correct direction. Are there any farmers out there with strong feelings ? Please leave your views by hitting the comment button below.