A FEW years ago I piloted a vintage Tiger Moth biplane above the Northamptonshire countryside where as young children, my brother, cousins and I enjoyed exploring.

As I gazed earthwards from the open cockpit, waves of nostalgia and poignancy swept over me because those meadows above which we watched skylarks ascending and hedgerows where yellowhammers sang and nested had now vanished beneath a sprawling housing development stretching as far as the eye could see.

This set me thinking, for we are losing vast tracts of countryside to development and much wildlife is in decline. So, in 50 years' time I wonder:

  • Will swallows be flocking on telephone wires and swifts still speed screaming round lofty church spires?
  • Will nightingales thrill country dwellers at twilight and skylarks ascend to sing sweetly at first light?
  • Will cuckoos return as they did years ago and the dawn chorus echo through woods and hedgerow?
  • Will yellowhammers sing about bread and no cheese and greenfinches utter their long-winded wheeeze?
  • Will we watch lapwings tumbling aerial displays or hear chiffchaff and willow warbler on sunny days?
  • Will those glorious birdsongs that we can still hear be mere cherished memories from yesteryear?

For at the present steep rate of decline to lose countryside birds seems only a matter of time.