IN conversation with my friend Patrick the other day he mentioned that he hadn’t seen any starlings lately. I replied I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen one either.

Since fixing up a couple of sonic cat scarers and with the occasional use of a water pistol, the garden has remained cat free and the birds have returned.

Blackbirds, sparrows, dunnocks, blue and coal tits, robins, wrens and even the occasional finch visit my small garden - plus of course the obligatory wood pigeon.

But I can’t remember the last time I saw a starling.

What’s happened to them?

D M Deamer, Monkgate, York