Kestrel poisoning is a big problem

In response to Kate Risely's article on Kestrels (Bird Watching, January 2016) any species carrying secondary poisoning is vulnerable. What happens in time of food shortage is that the liver shrinks, causing the percentage of poison inside the bird to increase, causing death before dying of hunger! With 100% of the birds carrying poison (visit bit.ly/2ihp8s3 on the Barn Owl Trust website) it’s by far a bigger problem than she makes out. As far as Goshawks, only Kielder has this problem with high numbers of both Kestrel and Goshawk in other areas living together. A problem in Kielder is the lack of food in winter for the Goshawks. John Miles