I am beginning to think that some of our native hedgerows are being subjected to more ‘trims’ in a year than is absolutely necessary.

It seems that in some instances any wayward branch daring to overreach itself is ruthlessly cut back. I can understand that those bordering roads require special attention, but hedgerows around fields do not really need to be so rigidly rectangular.

Periodic thinning out maybe, but surely not in the autumn when the fruits are a valuable food source for birds and mammals during the lean winter months.

Where once I picked sloes and blackberries, observed disdainfully by a little owl, and where I disturbed a resting snipe, there is now a bare, much smaller, uniform hacked back boundary offering little in the way of food or shelter.

Today I observed a lone robin sitting on the remnants of a berryless holly bush, and I wonder sadly what its chances are this winter.

MRS S NELDER Dene Road Headington

Today’s letters

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