I MUST confess to liking the photograph sent to the Echo by Julia Rosser of a robin (17/12/16).

At this time of year it’s worth remembering the Christmas carol The Twelve Days of Christmas mentioning the two turtle doves.

The turtle doves were used to symbolise love and faithfulness because they mate for life, work together to build a nest and struggle to raise their young. They are immortalised in the Old Testament as loyal, honest and loving with many other religions adopting doves as symbolising innocence and peace.

But in today’s world of materialism, there appears to be little time to appreciate the simple pleasures of life and no one is going to be popular for speaking up against the establishment.

But because very few people care, we accept intensive farming methods that are depleting our natural habitat and impacting so dramatically on its wildlife.

The humble, inoffensive migratory turtle dove has no place with today’s modern corporate-style attitude lead by balance sheets.

The only status offered to the turtle dove and many other species of birds is to be put on the endangered red list with the very real threat of becoming extinct within the next 10 years.

We need a government conservation minister urgently, whose sole responsibility should be for conservation with the enthusiasm required to secure safer migration routes for our birds, including those robins that overwinter in the UK.

Statistically, since 1994 the turtle dove has declined by 93 per cent and all we appear to be doing in the media is publicising overpaid TV celebrities promoting themselves, when we should be alerting the public to the wholesale dereliction of duty in our countryside and the impact being felt by its wildlife inhabitants.

MIKE FRY

Moorland Crescent, Upton

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