Counting crows

ARECENT report said that, in a town in California, the population was being overrun and bombarded by crows. Their solution is to use lasers or loud noises to disperse the birds. We use a slightly different procedure to clear the jackdaws that flock to our 60ft copper beech tree, namely to use a Walsall football rattle and a demented banshee cry from my wife. The jackdaws flee en masse! I wonder if anyone has other solutions?

William Sykes, Wiltshire

IN my article on Queen Caroline’s library (January 12), I incorrectly named one of my co-authors of the official history of St James’s Palace as Michael Hunter. In fact, it is Michael Turner, who is well placed to write on the subject, as he was Inspector of Historic Buildings in the Government Historic Estates Unit, firstly with English Heritage, latterly Historic England, dealing with St James’s from 1985–2019. Rufus Bird, by email