THE puffed-up chest and threatening brow say it loud and clear: "Come anywhere near this bird-feeder and you are mincemeat."

Few topics recently have aroused so much of a flap on our Readers' Letters page than the raging controversy over sparrowhawks and their threat to garden birds.

Some correspondents have threatened to shoot the predators to conserve the dwindling, timid bird population; some have demanded the bully birds be taken off the list of protected species.

Others have waded in to support the majestic creatures, denied they are a threat to garden birds and blamed it all on cats.

The Diary can today offer proof of the threat, thanks to reader Ian Denton, of Lumley Road, Clifton, York, who took this picture in his back garden.

"I've been following the correspondence on sparrowhawk predation of garden song birds with interest. This sparrowhawk is a regular visitor to our garden - here it is waiting at our bird feeding station. As a sparrow approached, the hawk lowered its profile before launching at the victim when it came within about six feet."

Thanks, Ian. Anybody out there got a picture of a cat pouncing on a sparrowhawk?

THE Diary has a friend whose teenage daughter has a mild obsession with hair straighteners, of all things.

Every time she leaves the house she is either back within minutes, or phones home to say: "Did I switch off my straighteners?" She does this without fail, panicking that she might set the house on fire, yet not once has she left them on.

Not even a huge sign on the inside of her bedroom door, Have You Switched Your Straighteners Off? has cured her of the habit. But at least she's erring on the side of caution.

Unlike the unsavoury story of a York man who is a Middlesbrough FC supporter. One Saturday morning he and three other misguided fans set off for the Boro's Big Game. As they entered the outskirts of Middlesbrough, the driver screamed, slammed on the brakes and wailed: "Oh my God, get out. I've got to go home. I've left a mucky film in the video player and the wife might find it." If he'll watch Middlesbrough, he'll watch anything.

Anyway, he drove back to York, rescued the offending, offensive video, and returned to Middlesbro' to see the closing minutes of the match. To cap a fine day, his team lost.

Serves him right for not supporting his home city's team. We have no reports back yet on the state of his relationship.

Updated: 10:21 Wednesday, April 19, 2006