Sir, – "They [gulls] happily eat the bread intended for the poor ducklings", writes John Lombard (May 20th). Might I suggest that therein lies the problem.
Bread is not a suitable food for nestlings. It fills their crops (craws) without providing adequate nourishment, which is best met by being fed on high-protein seeds and insects.
Too much bread in their diet and they starve to death. – Yours, etc,
TERENCE
HOLLINGWORTH,
Impasse Chopin,
Blagnac,
France.
Sir, – I arrived home from a trip to the supermarket recently to find a handsome drake from a nearby stream waddling around our garden.
So keen were my delighted young children to feed the duck that within moments – to my dismay – two freshly bought sliced pans had been scattered with enthusiasm and abandon in his general direction.
The duck was disinterested, but every gull, magpie, and pigeon within a two-mile radius arrived within moments. – Yours, etc,
CATHERINE DUNLEAVY,
Grey’s Lane,
Howth,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – I too have noticed the absence of not only ducklings and moorhen chicks but their parents over the past two years on the pond in St Stephen’s Green. The swans have also disappeared and all replaced by dozens of noisy gulls.
Their loud squawking and screeching as they fight amongst themselves for the bread is deafening compared with the gentle quacking of the ducks.
Is there a resolution? The ducks seem to be perfectly safe in Herbert Park. – Yours, etc,
URSULA
HOUGH-GORMLEY,
Donnybrook Castle,
Dublin 4.