I was quite shocked today when driving along a road in Norfolk – 2 birders unknown to me flagged me down to tell me of the presence of a pair of *** and even pointed out the nest site of these rare breeding birds that they were watching. I don’t even know why they chose to flag me down as it was a relatively busy road with plenty of other vehicles on it. Whilst they obviously thought they were doing me a huge favour, I was unknown to them. I could not quite believe how irresponsible they were being. I don’t know how common knowledge it is, but there was quite a serious egg collecting scare recently on the north Norfolk coast that saw police and RSPB wildlife crime department involvement. Although nothing came of the event it was a rude awakening to those of us involved with local conservation work. It is worth remembering that there are still eggers about and we as responsible birdwatchers should surely put the safety and well being of rare breeding birds first. As I was unknown to the 2 kind chaps, what if I had been an egg collector ? Game, set and match perhaps ? The answer I got when I questioned them was ‘everyone knows about them’. Not necessarily so. I am not having a go at any one in particular but surely we should all take the greatest care in who we tell or take to the sites of rare breeding birds. There is a lot of hard work going into bird protection often by a very few dedicated people on large sites, where natural events can create frustrating enough results so where we as birdwatchers can have a positive influence on a breeding bird’s safety we should surely put lists and trying to impress the world by telling everyone we meet right out of the window ?