THERE is at the moment a great deal of controversy centred around the love affairs of a bird.

This duck over-winters in this country before migrating to Spain, where its amorous attention to the native White Headed Duck is causing international concern that the interbreeding may see the demise of the indigenous thoroughbred. Such is the outrage that a figure of £50,000 has been quoted to cover the cost of a nationwide cull.

All this and, as far as I can ascertain, not the faintest whisper of objection from the RSPB.

Meanwhile, for the past 10 years, fishery owners and angling associations have seen a dramatic decline in the quality of their fishing. The cause of this problem -- the Goosander, Merganser, and the dreaded black death itself, the Cormorant.

Our native Brown Trout and the Atlantic Salmon -- which itself is an endangered species -- lose vast amounts of their progeny to these fish eaters; in some areas the Cormorant, in particular, nest and roost by the waters, thus making it far easier to gorge themselves.

Fishery owners and managers whose livelihoods are seriously affected by these menaces, and see their future stock eaten by the thousand, are advised to spend more money on larger, uneatable fish.

There is an answer, but when we apply for a licence to cull these birds "we will willingly do it for free", we might as well ask for the moon, and there is a wailing and gnashing of teeth because they are a protected species.

As far as I am aware, a bird is a bird, unless of course you are a Ruddy Duck.

T F Hampson

Fisher Owner and

Conservationist

Hulton Lane

Bolton