The Lincolnshire Bird Club

Hi all

I received the following message this morning as part of Operation Compass (the polices's anti-egg collecting operation). I have deleted the final 3 digits of the car reg plate for various possible legal ramifications, and the old adage of innocent until proven guilty! I would stress the need for vigilance in the county, especially given the history of egg collecting here and the number of rare breeding birds in the county - even those on well known/wardened sites, as the following message suggests.

Cheers,

PF.

"On 26th April a male person aged about 40 years was seen in suspicious circumstances at NWT Weeting Heath. He was allegedly seen trying to find eggs in a tree and asking a lot of questions about whether stone curlews were sitting on eggs as yet. He was in a blue Fiesta index number P995 ***. It is believed this same male has been stopped in suspicious circumstances at Cley before. This male is believed active Please can this vehicle number be circulated to staff for their vigilant observations. If seen do not approach or challenge this person. Please the police using the 999 number and quote Operation Compass and refer the caller taker to CAD NC-27042009-331."

A further reminder NOT to publish the sightings of Schedule 1 or rare breeding birds in the breeding season.

Perhaps you could give us ametuer birders a list of Schedule 1 birds, if thats O.K.?

_________________
Alastair Carr

Where there is a will, there is a way....

Alastair,
The following link should help http://www.jncc.gov.uk/PDF/waca1981_schedule1.pdf

Stuart

Hi

I received the following message this morning from Operation Compass. Please remain vigil throughout the countryside, and especially around rare breeding birds.

"An incident took place at Salthouse in North Norfolk around midnight of 29th May 2009 whereby two males were seen acting strangely in the area and one was dressed in camo. When the informant left the Dunn Cow pub at 0030hrs he described the marsh being alive with bird call and the two males vehicles were still in the car park. It is suspected that these two were stealing eggs somewhere out in the marsh. The Police were called and checked over the two vehicles but no one was present during the night although sleeping bags were seen in the car. On checking the marsh the next day a clutch of Avocet eggs were missing but it was unknown if they were stolen or had been predated. Please keep an eye out for the vehicles below and report any suspicious activity to operation compass.

White Renault Traffic Van – H******

Red Peugeot 306 – M****** "

There was a programme on the TV today about egg collecting,which showed Nigel Lound and a notebook of an egg collector who had been to Kirkby on Bain 3 times in a few weeks and stole 3 clutches of eggs of a rare bird,(they did mention the species).
Obviously keeping this site secret is not working,as when I visit the site once a year,I never see another birder,so it would be easy for an egger to take the eggs. Surely making the site more open to birders could help the security of the birds.