IT IS a sign of the times that the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds has roughly as many members (860,000) as the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat parties put together. Many of the ornithologically inclined will have been out and about yesterday, eyes alert and binoculars at the ready, to see what species they could spot as part of the first World Birdwatch Day.

A NEW wave of immigrants, exotic and colourful, is about to take up residence in Britain - in trees, on lakes and in reedbeds.

Sir: Malcolm Smith ('After 200 years, we still need you, Rev White', 21 June) reports Professor Bob May's suggestion that too much effort in wildlife recording is devoted to birds, to the detriment of other animals and plants. While, as a snail enthusiast, I have some sympathy with that view, it must be pointed out that the conclusion of the seminar that Professor May was addressing was that the extremely limited resources available should not be spread more thinly.

HUNDREDS of thousands of skylark nests and chicks were ploughed into the ground last month because of EC rules for taking farmland out of production. The new set-aside regime has led to a massacre of ground nesting birds, according to the British Trust for Ornithology.

(First Edition)

LIZ LYNNE, 45, Liberal Democrat MP for Rochdale

THE URBAN strait-jacket is beginning to pinch. A leading research organisation recently reported that nearly one in three people in Britain would like to move house and that two- thirds of these wishful thinkers would like to move to the country. This means that about 13 million people have itchy feet, and nearly nine million of them want their next move to give them cowpats and cowslips along the way.

Sir: I advise Jean Thomas to return for a closer look at the six 'colourful birds' (Letters, 3 March) she observed while walking in the Shropshire hills, or she may find the area inundated with disappointed twitchers.

A kestrel in a nesting box placed alongside the M40 in Warwickshire as part of an attempt to control naturally a rising vole population. The voles have damaged recently planted trees.

THE SALE of hundreds of detached, country residences is the latest reminder of the Cold War's passing. The compact properties boast 15ft vertical entrances, very secure doors and uninterrupted views of rolling countryside.

Birdwatchers are expected to flock to a Plymouth rubbish tip this weekend after the sighting of a rare Canadian Arctic gull. The Kumliens gull was spotted on the Chelson Meadow tip.

Bruce Campbell, ornithologist, writer and broadcaster, born Southsea Hampshire 15 June 1912, married 1938 Margaret Gibson-Hill (two sons, one daughter), died Witney Oxfordshire 9 January 1993.

JOHN LEACH, an environmental health officer with Shetland Islands Council, and his colleagues watched helplessly as the Braer was dashed on to the rocks of Fitful Head, so named because of its awesome reputation for storms.

'THERE comes a time,' say my parents, 'when every baby bird must leave the nest.' They say this with increasing regularity and increasing emphasis as the years go by. But here I am, at 26, still clutching on to the twigs and bark of the family home. I have peered over the edge of the nest a few times. And I have done a little experimental fluttering. But I always clamber back inside when the temptation arises to take that decisive leap into the real world.