Letter from the editor: We admit our mistakes

We may have an image of i readers as tweeters rather than twitchers, but yesterday’s picture of “a golden eagle viciously attacking a defenceless rabbit” certainly ruffled a few feathers.

Complaints flew in (sorry, I’ll stop it now), and not because of the somewhat superfluous description of the “defenceless” bunny. (This, presumably, was in contrast to a rabbit tooled up in case he gets set upon by the big bird from above.) No. As many of our readers pointed out, it was in fact not a golden eagle but a goshawk that fancied some lapin au naturel for supper (“the white eyebrow is diagnostic”, our Environment Editor, Michael McCarthy, tells me).

GM Jordan of Manchester said, caustically: “Maybe your picture editor should check his bird book.” Which just goes to show how easy it is to make mistakes, because our picture editor is, in fact, a woman! But we stand corrected: the news agency that supplied the remarkable picture, of an ancient hunting tradition still alive in the plains of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, also provided an incorrect caption, and I’m afraid our picture editor, whose relationship to wildlife extends largely to wearing it, didn’t have an ornithological expert on hand to correct it.

We at i admit our mistakes (on the rare occasions that we make them) and we’re always trying to enhance our service. If you have trouble getting i, just email the delightful Hannah in our circulation department and she’ll do her best to help you. But sometimes we are presented with a challenge that may defeat even us. From Anne-Mai Elbrecht yesterday came this: “Can you please tell me where in Estonia I can buy your newspaper?” Matt and John, who run our circulation department, were last seen poring over a map of Eastern Europe. Over to you, boys!