thousands of bird eggs turned over to UK police

[Chlidonias]

I saw this and thought it was interesting (in terms of the number of eggs in the collection). I'm not sure of the actual story behind it.

Wildlife Extra News - Thousands of bird eggs found in Merseyside

Around 5,000 bird eggs have been voluntarily handed over to the NWCU and Police by a 44 year old from Merseyside

When the call came in the officials were expecting to collect a few hundred birds’ eggs, but instead they found several huge specimen cabinets filled with 1000’s of eggs, including osprey, golden eagle and many foreign species. Officers were also provided with a large number of data cards, some of which date back around 100 years.

Egg collecting in the UK was an acceptable hobby in Victorian times and the early 1900’s. However, it became illegal to take birds eggs in 1954 and the law was further strengthened in 1981 when possession of wild birds’ eggs was made an offence.

Andy McWilliam from NWCU said, “This call was completely unexpected, but we are pleased that the eggs are now in the custody of the police.

"We are extremely grateful for the assistance this man has provided. Without his co-operation we would never have known about the collection’s existence.

"He realized the importance of handing them over and getting them out of circulation. Unfortunately there are modern day collectors who will try and disguise their collections as antique and mix recently taken eggs with old collection”.

Once the examination of the collection and the data is complete, it is hoped that that the collection will be suitable for scientific research by a museum.

 

[gentle lemur]

I'm not at all surprised. Egg collecting was very common at one time. My father made his own collection when he was a boy in the 1930s, also in Merseyside as it happens. I remember the wooden cabinet it was kept in, with drawers divided into square compartments lined with cotton wool. But his cabinet was cubical with a side of about 12 inches, so he probably had little more than 100 eggs.

Alan

 

[IanRRobinson]

It did serve some good when the DDT link with the Peregrine decline was proved; eggs taken in the 1930s and earlier could be compared for egg shell thickness. But it is a fairly puerile pursuit and a waste of good birders - not to say good birds.

Because of eggers, rare breeders are nearly always cloaked in secrecy in the UK. They are a national embarrassment.

 

[Pertinax]

.

Because of eggers, rare breeders are nearly always cloaked in secrecy in the UK. They are a national embarrassment.

Its strange indeed that this 'hidden' pursuit is still carried on and still presents a danger to some of our rarest breeding birds, but it does. It seems an equal threat nowadays though is from (wild) bird photographers who don't always respect the 'safe' required distance boundaries of nesting species.