The disappearance of some birds is because of changes in agricultural policy to encourage intensive sheep-rearing
Sir, Raptors are not responsible for the demise of some of our ground-nesting birds (letter, Mar 14). Whereas buzzards and kites might still be novelties over much of England, in Mid-Wales we have had them for ever, and the decline of lapwings in Radnorshire, for example, is not linked to any changes in their numbers. The reason why the species has largely disappeared here is purely as a result of changes in government agricultural policies that require farmers to move away from traditional mixed farming to more intensive sheep-rearing.
Unfortunately, anybody interested in saving our wildlife, the countryside and