“WHAT can I do about grey squirrels eating the seeds in my bird feeder?” asks Alan Fitzpatrick (Letters, July 6).
Nothing. Just relax. Enjoy watching these brilliant acrobats. If need be put out a few more seeds.
Hugh Boyd, Bearsden.
I WAS interested in Alan Fitzpatrick's description of grey squirrels as "verminous tree rats" (Herald July 6)
A bit of respect towards the animal kingdom wouldn't go amiss. The most dangerous vermin ever to live on our beautiful planet I would suggest is called humankind, who have managed to make extinct more than a million species of animals, including insects. Grey squirrels did not buy tickets on Atlantic steamers, with their luggage in great cabin trunks, they were introduced on this side of the Atlantic by those interfering humans, who would have done the world a greater service if they had not introduced rabbits to Australia and grey squirrels to Britain. Or indeed coypu to France to provide women with fur coats. Coypu, and indeed mink, would have been quite happy to keep their coats on their own backs, but they weren't given a choice. Now we disrespectfully call them names as if it was their fault they were here instead of ours.
Margaret Forbes, Kilmacolm.
HAS anybody else noticed the killer seagulls busy destroying the pigeons in Glasgows George Square? For several weeks now tourists and young children have witnessed the horrible sight of seagulls devouring their prey on the grass near the Cenotaph which is now covered with feathers and bones. I have never witnessed this before in all my years of walking around the Square.
Could the council please consider employing a hawk to fly around scaring these gulls, as apparently this is the only other bird they are frightened of? Oiling the eggs to stop them hatching in the first place is a method that has been used in Aberdeen but I don't think that would be an option in Glasgow. Finding the nests would be a challenge. Any suggestions from Herald readers would be welcome.
Elizabeth Mueller, Glasgow G12.
I blame 1966
NEIL Cameron wonders why so-called dyed-in-wool football fans are ignorant of the history of the game ("Brought to book over wee facts and stats", Herald Sport, July 5). The principal reason is that defensive football gradually gained dominance after England's "Wingless Wonders" World Cup triumph in 1966, creating the tunnel-vision attitude in subsequent generations of supporters that results are all that matter, all other facets of the game being viewed as irrelevant and a further reflection of our instant gratification society.
Astronomical salaries and transfer fees and countless managerial casualties have been the inevitable outcome and at home will ensure the enduring superiority of the Old Firm as television diktats restricted league sizes unchallenged by a quiescent media.
Duncan Macintyre, Greenock.
Union blues
IS it not time that the unions were legally enforced to pay compensation to those affected by their actions?
(Dr) RM Ross, Giffnock.
Sci-fi facts
CAN I suggest to Andrew McKie ("Log in and check out how the doomsayers were wrong", The Herald, July 5) that he reads the works of Isaac Asimov, where he will find references to much of what we have today? Flat-screen TVs, robotic vacuum cleaners and so on although the robots in the books are a bit more interactive than what we have at the moment. But we're getting there.
One book of Asimov's that I can recommend is The End of Time. In it mention is made of hand-held computers, or tablets as we call them. This book was published in the mid-1950s.
Ian Gray, Croftamie.
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