STRAY cats prowling the sparse shrubbery in our gardens and parks are making life even more of a misery for songbirds whose numbers have plummeted from the effects of erratic weather and the destruction of bushes and hedgerows which provided them sustenan

STRAY cats prowling the sparse shrubbery in our gardens and parks are making life even more of a misery for songbirds whose numbers have plummeted from the effects of erratic weather and the destruction of bushes and hedgerows which provided them sustenance.

Garden birds are especially vulnerable to these feline predators during the breeding season and the RSPB would do well to introduce a new law forcing owners to keep their cats housebound; at least during the breeding season.

My local park can no longer boast of songbirds and squirrels in the numbers I was accustomed to seeing in years gone by and the last time I caught sight of a chaffinch and its young was in my own balcony on the third floor two years ago. In fact chaffinches did not make the list in the RSPB's 2007 Big Garden Birdwatch Survey. - Walter Roberts, Henfield Close, N19.