Letter of the week
In defence of blue tits
REGARDING the morality, or otherwise, of blue tits (‘When I am feeling blue’, May 17), an encounter in our garden may help explain the need for many offspring.
Our attractive hemispheric bird box hung on our tree for a couple of years with no residents. In due course, it was found and occupied, but, after one successful year, the next was a different story. The usual frenzy of feeding hatchlings was followed by a disaster in the form of a woodpecker, who systematically drilled into the entrance. Seeing him fly away with each of the nestlings hanging from his beak was both sad and gruesome, but no doubt he had his own nestlings to feed.
This year, we have a bird box
