Get tough on those who prey on birds of prey.

(From The Northern Echo)

Byline: HARRY MEAD

THE great bustard is back. If all goes well with the ambitious re-introduction on Salisbury Plain, Britain will again have its own population of the world's heaviest flying bird. Mind you, since it looks not unlike a long-legged turkey, it should perhaps be trained to recognise the approach of Christmas - and keep its head down.

Much more important, the great bustard was shot into extinction in 1832.

So it was ironic that the announcement of the great bustard project coincided with news that the hen harrier, one of our most magnificent birds of prey, is on the edge of extinction through what English Nature believes is illegal persecution - the shooting or, more usually, the poisoning of birds on game moors. If this fear is true, it means that while we are regaining one bird sacrificed to game shooting, we are losing another from the same cause.

Grouse-moor owners and gamekeepers always insist that enlightened policies now prevail, with birds of prey tolerated or even encouraged. I don't doubt the word of those who have put this to me personally. But the fact remains that red kites released in a re-introduction programme at Harewood House continue to be found dead, often in Nidderdale.

Common in south west England, buzzards are also well-established in the Lake District. Yet they seem to struggle to colonise what seem favourable habitats in the Dales, Pennines and Moors, all major shooting areas.