[lesf]

How many of us birders of middle aged years used to be avid egg collectors before we became birders, I know in my early teens I used to collect I am ashamed to say but I knew no different, the times were different then and I know of no youngster who carry out this awful act. Strange how you can go from a destroyer of birds to a lover of all avian creatures. It is our responsibly to educate others pity nobody educated us.

[Mabel]

I, being a relative youngster of 19, have NEVER heard of it in my area, nor do I know anyone who does or used to so it! It is hard for me to believe that it WAS commonplace - sign of the times eh? (*Dances off singing Prince*)

[speckled wood]

I need to polish my Halo here and say that as someone of middle years, collecting birds eggs is something that I have never done, in fact it is something that I have never even thought of doing and I am utterley bewildered at why someone would want to do so. As something of a compulsive collector it is perhaps odd that I never thought of doing this and don't understand why people would do so.

SW

[Sedgley]

Yes, growing up in a semi-rural area I did. But it was viewed differently in those days. I can remember vacations in Rhyl where a shop used to have an egg collection in the window.

You can't judge people of the past by present values.

[mattie]

Me to grew up in the country and i used to have an egg collection but back then so did all my mates my dad even used to help me look for nests!!!!!!!!!

[Roy C]

Back in the 1950's when I was growing up egg collecting was common place, loads of the kids in my area of Devon did it - this was what got me interested in birds. I remember when I stopped, it was when some guy offered me 10 bob (50p in today's money) for my collection. I sold it to him and never collected again, reckon I must have been about 12 years old.

[ted hilland]

This subject has been covered before but because its so emotiove it regularly returns. Just think about how many of us now subscribe to worthy avian causes because our interest was initially spawned by egg collecting and it might make you feel better. That said i can think of few things that get my heart rate racing faster than by stumbling across a nest full of beautuful eggs and as a mis-informed youngster then, I can still see as an adult today how they were irrisistable. You know whats particularly refreshing is that I never come across youngsters stealing eggs these days , fortuneatley its not in vogue. Again that said I rarely come across youngsters birding either by themselves or with adults !! so perhaps we should be addressing this now so that when we middle aged critters drop off the bark there will be the next generation to come along

[Gaz Shilton]

Originally Posted by mattie

Me to grew up in the country and i used to have an egg collection but back then so did all my mates my dad even used to help me look for nests!!!!!!!!!

Ditto.....I also discovered that most birds would often lay another egg to compensate for the one I took. I wouldn't take the whole clutch.
I remember reading an article in a magazine years ago that said an egg collector contributed to making the Red Backed Shrike extinct as a breeding bird in Norfolk all by himself by taking whole clutches. He had dozens, only because each clutch had different coloured eggs in each.

[ghostrider]

I'm guilty too. As a teenager i spent most of my time egg collecting. It was common place at the time, either that or buy an air rifle and shoot them! I must stress I NEVER SHOT birds. I could never bring myself to do that. The thing was at that time there were not many birdwatchers not that i was of aware of anyway, we're talking about the early seventies here, around 73-74 and i was 12. All my mates collected eggs and there was competition not so much for rare eggs more for the number. If you had six Blackbird eggs, five Hedge Sparrow(as we called them then) and six Song thrush eggs, you had a good collection. We used to "blow" the eggs by pricking each end with a pin and blowing the contents out then set them in a nice display box filled with sawdust. If we found a nest we would "raid" it 2 or 3 times until the birds stopped laying. This was when my 12 year old concience started to kick in and i stopped telling my mates where the nest's were. I would still go "nesting" but not to get the eggs but to watch the birds which was easy because i knew loads of nest sites, far more than i know today. I think the final straw came when 2 so called mates at the time had obviously followed me to a Bullfinch nest, only to later present me with a "cake from the local cake shop" which contained Bullfinch nest complete with clutch of 4 eggs!
I am ashamed of what i did but if i hadn't have done it i wouldn't be the bird watcher i am today and i think this is true of a lot of people of that era. Some grew out of egg collecting and went into the next thing that young people were doing, others, like myself discovered the wonder of birds.
Let us not forget, at the time people didn't think they where doing anything wrong, and according to the law, we weren't. You could drink and drive and not wear seat belts etc... but it did introduce a lot of young people to wildlife.

[robert burgess]

i know my dad used to collect eggs and still kept a collection when i was born,i am 32 now and have never known it in my time of life but am well aware it used to be a popular past time

[dafi]

i collected my last egg in about 70 71. It was something i just grew out of . At the time collecting was a commen thing . I went to primary school on the orkney island of stronsay about 67. It was a regular event through the spring for all the men and boys from the farms to collect eggs from the cliffs en mass. Youngsters like myself who were more nimble had a rope tied around the waist and bucket in hand and away down we all wentafter fullmar razorbill and guillemot. Its easy to tell if the egg is birded and those we left. you learned quickly to chase the bird off before getting puked on. To us this was high adventure of the first magnitude . On the cliffs working with the men.it just didnt get any better.Then after our buckets were full we would head back, collecting bb and common on the flat shore . We would trail round a few houses to distribute the bounty. This involving a quick boil of eggs for every one ,home brew and whisky for the men ginger beer for us kids.then on to the next house. I couldent condone this now but then it was part of natures bounty something that was shared out in the community where every one benefited. Life was tough on the farm but pepole didnt over exploit the birds as a resource it always was sustainable and pressure would have been even greater when birds were taken for oil as well.As for me im not embarrsed or ashamed for my wee part. Thats how life was, The one thing i did learn from it allthough is the true meaning of constipation

[ted hilland]

Originally Posted by dafi

i collected my last egg in about 70 71. It was something i just grew out of . At the time collecting was a commen thing . I went to primary school on the orkney island of stronsay about 67. It was a regular event through the spring for all the men and boys from the farms to collect eggs from the cliffs en mass. Youngsters like myself who were more nimble had a rope tied around the waist and bucket in hand and away down we all wentafter fullmar razorbill and guillemot. Its easy to tell if the egg is birded and those we left. you learned quickly to chase the bird off before getting puked on. To us this was high adventure of the first magnitude . On the cliffs working with the men.it just didnt get any better.Then after our buckets were full we would head back, collecting bb and common on the flat shore . We would trail round a few houses to distribute the bounty. This involving a quick boil of eggs for every one ,home brew and whisky for the men ginger beer for us kids.then on to the next house. I couldent condone this now but then it was part of natures bounty something that was shared out in the community where every one benefited. Life was tough on the farm but pepole didnt over exploit the birds as a resource it always was sustainable and pressure would have been even greater when birds were taken for oil as well.As for me im not embarrsed or ashamed for my wee part. Thats how life was, The one thing i did learn from it allthough is the true meaning of constipation

Dafi thats a fascinating account, youre right you shouldnt feel any remorse. That was a way of life and you couldnt have harmed the eco system. I think I know now where the expression " eggs bind" comes from

[AmpelisChinito]

Wow, that's really messed up. It's certainly not something we do here in America, and I don't know of anyone that shoots birds, except game birds and waterfowl.

[steveo]

Bummer. Thats life.

[KorHaan]

When I was a boy I was never tempted to collect eggs. I looked for birds nests though, and found a lot of them; the hunt through the thickets was the exciting part but once a nest was found, I just admired it and the eggs in it.
Nowadays I realize it must have been pretty disturbing for the breeding birds, I still feel a bit awkward and guilty if I look back on the early seventies.

I think the reason why I never could bring myself to collecting eggs is an incident in 1968. On my way to primary school I found a dead Fieldfare on the side of the road. I picked it up and was in a strange way touched by the sheer beauty of it. I had no idea what kind of bird it was, I knew I had never seen one like it before. I recall being impressed the rest of the day, but I did not take it it home with me; I just laid it back where I had found it.
On my thirteenth birthday my parents gave me my first pair of binoculars and I was off birding.
I like to think it is the dead Fieldfares legacy that I'm birding still today in a respectful manner. I'm strongly opposed against a curious and awkward tradition that exists in the northern part of the Netherlands ( ie Friesland ), which is the contest for the finding and taking of the first Lapwing's egg and offering it to the mayor of the village.
It's not children but grown men who take part in this contest, just to get their name in the papers. It's pathetic and makes me regret I'm Dutch sometimes.

Greetings, Ronald

[dantheman]

Originally Posted by AmpelisChinito

Wow, that's really messed up. It's certainly not something we do here in America, and I don't know of anyone that shoots birds, except game birds and waterfowl.

You mean Dafi's account, or the other egg collecting accounts?

It was common practise in Europe where seabirds nested near inhabited areas (ie most areas like the scottish and northern english coast and islands and in scandinavia) for the locals to 'crop' the seabirds eggs the same as they would the sea for fish and the beaches for seals at the appropriate time of year. I'm sure the Inuit/native americans in the relevant areas did too. Of course it's not a practise widespread in europe at all now.

Egg collecting as a hobby- to collect eggs for display/ private collection- before the great 'industrialisation' of farming, with the widespread use of fertilisers and pesticides etc etc, the common uk birds would have been in a much stronger position to withstand the loss of some eggs to small boys and collectors. Of course for some rarer species this would have been much more critical. . .

And again, its highly illegal in the uk now. As to things like this happening in the US, I don't know if egg collecting ever took off over there, but in the past, birds would have been shot by the gentlemen collectors as a highly esteemed hobby both sides of the atlantic. Naturalists shot birds as a matter of course (such as the great Audobon himself). And birds of prey (seen as vermin) were persecuted widely within the law in the past. And of course they still are, illegally.

I'm too young to have done egg-collecting myself, although I know my dad did as a boy on his wanders in the countryside, with his mates. Unfortunately a few people still do it (mostly older), which is why we still have to withhold information on the whereabouts of certain rare breeding birds here in the uk every year.

[Ben Nevis]

I am involved in Coaching football to around 40 youngsters every week,from the ages of 10 - 15 year olds.I have never heard of any of them having an interest in collecting eggs.Sadly,I also have to say,none of them show an interest in birds or wildlife in general.In my younger days,the end of the Football season (mid April) would have signalled the start of the egg collecting season until the Football started again.We must however,not become complacent at todays youth ignoring birds eggs.The bird egg collecters today (mostly adults) are every bit as dangerous to some species,as the "gun happy" Victorians were.

[robert burgess]

There is a whole lot of difference beetween todays egg collectors and the ones from 30-40 years ago.
The ones today know its wrong and know that it carries fines/sentances but still do it
30-40 years ago and longer it was considered fine due to lack of knowledge.I should imagine that had it been common knowledge not to collect eggs then the majority of people would of stopped straight away.What we see know tends to be people who can't let go of their hobby and their offspring,whether its illegal or not.

[lockbreeze926]

I always found this to be a weird "hobby". Growing up in the heart of Scotland's biggest city, I never knew anybody who expressed the slightest notion of egg collecting.

For me, it was an alien idea, a bit like wicker picnic baskets, Enid Blyton books and lashings of pop. Very strange, very 50s.

[dafi]

[quote=dantheman]You mean Dafi's account, or the other egg collecting accounts?

Cheers Dan i thought i was going to have to type out that long explination but you managed a lot more eliquintly than me . spot on.

Ta Daf

[timeshadowed]

Egg collecting may not have been 'popular' here in America, but in the 1800's 'speciman' collecting was done. Adult rare birds were hunted down and killed just to be 'stuffed' and added to a 'collection'. The ivroy-billed woodpecker is a classic example of this type of collecting. The whole 'family' was shot and collected at the nest!

I just don't understand what people were thinking in those days!!

[Colin Key]

Originally Posted by Ben Nevis

I am involved in Coaching football to around 40 youngsters every week,from the ages of 10 - 15 year olds.I have never heard of any of them having an interest in collecting eggs.Sadly,I also have to say,none of them show an interest in birds or wildlife in general.In my younger days,the end of the Football season (mid April) would have signalled the start of the egg collecting season until the Football started again.We must however,not become complacent at todays youth ignoring birds eggs.The bird egg collecters today (mostly adults) are every bit as dangerous to some species,as the "gun happy" Victorians were.

Your comments are very salient, Ben Nevis. As a child in the 1950´s in the rural environment of Cumbria (Cumberland as it then was) I was interested in every aspect of the living world, mainly through my grandfather. He was a true "countryman" of that time - he fished for salmon and seatrout, shot anything that was edible, kept ferrets for netting rabbits and also set snares for same. Most of my mates had bird egg collections, it was a hobby, sport and very interesting pastime which kept us in touch with nature. We were never told it was "wrong". I do not honestly think that we did a great deal of damage when compared to the massacre of species by the use of pesticides two or three decades ago and the generally wildlife-unfriendly farming practices of today - all us little lads with our shoeboxes full of cotton wool and birds eggs were angels by comparison.

I was also brought up in an environment where shooting for sport was commonplace. I have shot gamebirds, and prior to that I had a succession of more and more powerful air rifles with which I killed anything in sight, birds, rats, rabbits, etc. Of this I am very deeply ashamed but, again, it was as nothing compared to the slaughter I see going on around me in Portugal today.

Colin

[Colin Key]

Originally Posted by AmpelisChinito

Wow, that's really messed up. It's certainly not something we do here in America, and I don't know of anyone that shoots birds, except game birds and waterfowl.

Are game birds and waterfowl different, then?

Colin

[joe cockram]

Originally Posted by Colin Key

Are game birds and waterfowl different, then?

Colin

Strictly speaking, game birds are stuff like pheasants or partridge, (usually bred and realeased for shooting) and waterfowl are wild ducks and geese and things, fowl that inhabit water.

joe

[Colin Key]

Originally Posted by joe cockram

Strictly speaking, game birds are stuff like pheasants or partridge, (usually bred and realeased for shooting) and waterfowl are wild ducks and geese and things, fowl that inhabit water.

joe

I know that; my post was a sarcastic response to the hypocracy of post #13.