This permits certain activities which would otherwise be illegal under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.

The licence applies only to birds and certain species could be killed for specific purposes. These include crop protection, protection of livestock and foodstuffs, conservation of birds, prevention of disease etc.

The person concerned did not have to have a copy of the licence but had to be an authorised person. In other words, they had to be the owner of the ground or have permission of the owner.

The method of killing also had to be within the law and they included shooting, a cage trap or netting. Thirteen species of birds can be controlled under the General Licence and these are: carrion crow; collared dove; great black-backed gull; lesser black-backed gull; herring gull; jackdaw; jay; magpie; feral pigeon; rook; house sparrow; starling and woodpigeon. The licence covered England, Wales and Scotland.

The problem has been that the status of some of the species has changed over the years. For example, in Britain the house sparrow and starling are on the "red" list. This means they have had a rapid decline in UK breeding populations or rapid contraction of the UK breeding range, both in the last 25 years. The lesser black-backed gull and herring gull are on the "amber" list that has shown a decline in the last 25 years.

So when the Scottish Government consulted about revising the General Licence, I for one, along with many others, expected at least the house sparrow and starling to be removed from the list. The red status after all had meant grants were available last year for specially designed nest boxes for starlings, some of which were put up in the Highlands and they have been successful.

To help the red-listed house sparrow, many of us in the Highlands bought special sparrow boxes with three nest chambers as after all they are a colonial species.

When I heard that the Scottish Government had produced a new General Licence, I went online and typed in Scottish General Licence. The most help came from the British Association for Shooting and Conservation (Scotland). Their guidance notes were very helpful. I rang their office in Dunkeld and the upshot was a very helpful James Scott sent me attachments of the official General Licences. There were 23 A4 sized pages to get all the information.

There are now three licences, with one covering killing or taking under various acts such as animal health and welfare. There are 13 species listed, with only one left off the original list, namely the jay. The crows have been split into hooded and carrion crow. Incredibly, the house sparrow, starling and lesser black-backed gull are on this list.

Starlings taking nest material into the doocot.

Another licence covers other aspects of control such as shooting and traps and this list includes lesser black-backed gull and the jay is reinstated. A third licence is for control to prevent serious damage to livestock, crops, vegetable and fruit. This list includes the house sparrow, herring gull and starling but not the lesser-black backed gull or the jay.

There are other anomalies such as under-reporting and recording, as if licensees take any action against red or amber species they have to send the records to Edinburgh. The species listed are herring gull, starling and house sparrow but no mention of the lesser black-backed gull.

Larsen traps are the in thing at the moment and the new General Licence states that they must be checked at least once a day. They must also have a sign indicating the traps are legal and details of the police wildlife crime officer if anyone has any queries. The sign must also have a code to enable the police, and only the police, to know to whom the trap belongs.

All three licences have some common features and one includes the fact that whilst the licensee does not have to carry or have a copy of the licence, they must read and understand the licence. One important aspect is that the licensee must be satisfied that non-lethal controls are either ineffective or impractical.

I found the whole issue of the licences confusing, especially with the two red-listed species involved. The argument is that the situation over these two species is different in Scotland than in England and Wales. The red and amber listings are for the whole of the UK.

By coincidence, readers have been asking me how the starlings have been getting on in their refurbished free-standing doocot in our garden. There are eight entrance holes and nest chambers and all of them seem to be occupied.

The battles the birds have been undertaking in getting nest material into the holes is almost comical and most of the material of dried grass and straw seems to fall to the ground all around the doocot. Only occasionally do the birds bother to pick up this material as they just fly off elsewhere and come back.

The reason so much material is needed is because I asked the joiner who refurbished the doocot to completely clean out all the nest boxes, so the birds have been trying to make up for lost time or should that be lost material? The photograph was taken last week and shows tiny pieces of straw as opposed to the two foot lengths they sometimes try.

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