Sir, – Nicholas Rhea’s article (Countryman's Diary, Weekend Times April 10) about the demise of the cuckoo in our country was very interesting, as his articles always are.

I recall my childhood in Surrey in the 40s and 50s when the cuckoo was always heard every year. To think otherwise would have been unbelievable. Since then, wherever my wife and I have lived in England or Wales, its presence has been less and less noticeable. Last year, I did, for a moment think I’d caught its nostalgic call, only to have it drowned out by a biker in the distance revving his pistons up the Yafforth Road. By the time he’d gone, so had the elusive cuckoo, so I could only mark it down as a “possible”.

We often blame the scarcity of this bird on predations and shootings in its African winter quarters, but I wonder if this is the true reason. If you were to go to France or Spain at this time of the year, you would stand a very good chance of either hearing or seeing your springtime cuckoo. So perhaps it is something that we are doing wrong here in Britain.

I often wonder whether our all encompassing, blanket protection, for wildlife is not perhaps having unintended consequences. Already there are naturalists who are wondering whether our badger protection laws are actually detrimental to the survival of our hedgehogs, as badgers are really their only predators.

The bird populations here are also being skewed by protection laws, in as much as we have an inordinate increase in certain avian species such as wood pigeons, carrion crows and magpies; something not seen on the continent.

The woodpigeons of course are competing with our winter residents for food at the most critical time of the year, and the magpies and crows are predators of the eggs and young of species that the cuckoo needs as hosts, such as song thrush, woodlark, pipits and warblers.

Perchance we should look to own position concerning the rapid disappearance of this iconic bird.

David J SMITH

Romanby, Northallerton.