Disappearance of moorland birds

Sir, Could it be that the answer to the mysterious disappearance of the golden plover and other moorland birds that Iain Thornber laments (Morvern Lines, The Oban Times, July 28) is due to climate change and an excess of predators?

On a local estate where, in the first half of the 19th century, they shot thousands of grouse, this had declined by the end of the century to where no grouse were shot. Winters had become milder and so a huge increase in tick numbers.

The estate reintroduced sheep as ‘tick mops’ and within 10 years the ticks had reduced from 70 on undipped sheep to practically zero. Two thousand grouse were shot with an increase in other moorland birds such as curlew, redshank and golden plover.

On a recent visit to Iceland, I again marvelled at the number of moorland birds – redshanks, ptarmigan, golden plover, whimbrel (their curlew) – and how tame they were. The answer? Virtually no predators and harsher winters.

In Iceland they have thousands of horses (don’t call them ponies) grazing over the hills and moors as we used to have cattle. The cattle kept the herbage sweet and palatable for the sheep, who benefited the grouse by keeping the heather short and providing dung and thus flies for the young chicks.

In Strathspey, there is an old saying: ‘ When a hill is white with sheep it is black with grouse.’

The recent craze for wild land will only result in a further reduction in moorland birds. Campbell Slimon, Laggan, Newtonmore.