Correspondence

The Editor acknowledges the receipt of the following letter from R. H. A. Staniforth, the Editor of ” Mountaineering “:—

” Dear Sir,

Apropos ‘ Bird Watching in the Hills’ (Y.R.C. Journal, Vol. VIII, No. 28), on the relevant matter of the Peregrine Falcon’s chance of survival in the Lakes, it appears that a recent survey of crags from Kendal to Keswick and from Haweswater to Ennerdale and Loweswater—including the heights round Wastwater and Buttermere—showed that only three out of eighteen eyries were missed by egg collectors.

” It was of interest to note in ‘ The Countryman’ Autumn, 1957, that . . . ‘ The growing interest in rock climbing, rightly fostered by the National Park Authority and other bodies, may seriously interfere with successful breeding unless guides and instructors are encouraged to keep people away from eyrie crags during the breeding season. At week-ends relays of climbers, by staying for hours near certain crags, may unwittingly keep peregrines from their eggs for so long that they become chilled.’

(Signed) R. H. A. Staniforth.”