RE your Diary on the Loose column (April 19), and its item regarding sparrow hawks.

The partial recovery of our birds of prey populations, after years of persecution by gamekeepers and industrial farming practices to wipe them off the face of the earth (with poisoned carcases, guns and assorted pesticides and herbicides etc), should be a cause for celebration.

I, too, am upset if a beautiful garden bird is taken by a sparrow hawk but, as it is us that have created these birds of prey 'picnic areas', so it is with us that responsibility lies in trying to understand the balance of nature by not chastising the sparrow hawk for doing what it is instinctively designed to do.

I'm sure there are ways we can organise these bird-feeding stations in order to minimise the risk to other bird species.

The RSPB publishes a number of very informative leaflets on this and other bird-related issues. Their address is The Lodge, Sandy, Bedfordshire SG19 2DL, tel: 01767 680551 or log on to www.rspb.org.uk

In conclusion, if I had to nominate the biggest killer of not only garden birds, but also badgers, owls and other wild species of birds and mammals, it is road traffic (particularly cars) and, by implication, us and the way we treat country roads as veritable racetracks and consequently death-traps for birds and other species going about their daily lives.

Indeed, on our road network as a whole, millions of birds, mammals and other species die under the wheels, or from the impact of that ultimate killing machine - the car!

H O Griffiths,

Prospect Cottage,

Bulmer,

York.

Updated: 08:51 Monday, May 01, 2006