I think you have misrepresented Hotspur with that reference to his quote....he said the net not the forum!!
I dont think i am wrong and I still dont aggree with you David.
As has been said previously knowing the location of a shed 1 nest site is not a right it is a privalige and i dont think it is on to be pointing all and sundary in its general direction.
To be pointing folks in the direction of something so rare in England at the start of the breeding season is just asking for problems and bordering on the criminaly irrisponsible.
You know what jerkin you seem like a nice fellow and probably are ,like most people interested in Birds. And me while i like to think that i am nice person as well and someone who does not go around telling lies for the sake of telling them. I have no reason to lie about these birds and how i came across them. What would it take for you to believe me ?? If i sat you down in a country pub bought you a pint looked you in the eye and told you the story about these birds from start to finish...everything the whole truth and nothing but the truth....thats what it would have to take because no matter what I tell you , you are just not going to believe it.
I never had acces to a computer or the net until way back in the late 90s i live with my dad and he never ever owned a computer I did have access to the internet and a computer but that was nearly 10 years later.
For me to trawl the net would have been impossible and to be honest there is still very little or nothing on the net that would have led me to them.
The very people who are hammering me on here are the very people who made a big big mistake ( if thats what you want to call it ) way back in the late 70s when they produced a thin booklet greenish if i can remember exactly, about the birds that had been sighted or spotted if you like in Northumberland.
The book was published by NORTHUMBERLAND BIRD CLUB yes of all people.
I am sure someone will still have one of these books for you to check I would of thought birders being birders lots of people will still have a copy of this book.
Right this is the very important bit in that book ( I will try and find out the exacy year for you if you wish ) I think it was around November time on a cold day someone spotted a very young Golden Eagle sitting on a rock at a place which I will gladly refrain from mentioning.
I have never disclosed this area and never will nor have any of the other sites.
Now then they actually said that it was probably a passing GE or something to that nature but anyone with even half a brain knows that a GE this young at that time of year must be from the very area it has been sited at.
This book and this sighting was the first indication which led me to believe that there was a pair breeding there. Now I have admitted lots of times in the past that i did go out of my way ( back then ) because it was something I have always wanted to see no doubt about that and i will repeat I have changed the way i go birding now...but that really is not the point.
The point is that someone from Nortumberland bird club disclosed this highly sensitive information...and i would bey you a million pounds if i had it that this person found what he was actually looking for.
This person was not out looking for hawks or harriers he knew that they were there then he was daft enough to go and publish it. now i dony know if this person had a schedule 1 licence i am not really bothered...but that info should have never ever have been published.
Now then the next thing we dont know is how many guys this guy told of his fantastic find...i could imaging it wouldn't have been many but there would have been more than a few I bet. Then one or two of those very few people tell a few more and before you know it , it is a badly kept secret.....and that my friend is how my snowball started rolling....no internet...no computer 100% the truth.
If you still feel it in your nature to disbelieve me I will get the book photocopy it and send it to you in a PM if you wish, or im sure with your connections you may well know someone who may have a copy.
If any member of Northumberland Bird Club would like to verify my story or has the book please feel free to comment on my claims. There is not really much else I can say but that is how it all started.
The rest I would need a day to tell you !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
regards
david
