YOUR report (November 19) of the falconry business setting up at Sparkwell on Dartmoor, with 18 birds, concerns me.

The headline – "Watch out rabbits there's a preying hawk about" – could well have said "watch out grouse, golden plover, snipe and several other game and wader birds", many becoming rare.

The following extracts, too, sound alarming: "They can pick out a quarry a quarter of a mile away" and "to the falconer it is the chase that counts". The report stresses the joy and excitement of the free flight of these non-native exotic birds of prey. I cannot believe falconers can choose the prey, e.g. magpies and rabbits, much as they might try. Falconry, therefore, is yet another threat to wildlife.

I do not doubt these magnificent birds' appeal, or that falconry is good for tourism and is a thriving business. But with serious declines in so many moorland birds, like the curlew, I believe it is time to revise the licensing laws drawn up many years ago – for instance, you can still be issued with a licence to take lapwings' eggs!

Falconry is increasing and may well have a noticeable impact on the populations of some wild birds. Indigenous species such as buzzards and merlins, also predators, are, of course, part of natural biodiversity.

Alan Flack Okehampton