Hi David iv only known of these rather clandestine professionals to fail once and only because they where instructed to allow a site to be robbed,as a prosecution was necessary to put an individual behind bars
Im sorry Jerkin but take a good look at what you have just wrote and convince me with some proof that what you have just said is true.
I like most people on here hate egg thieves , i do not see why anyone would want to do what they do but for some unknown reason they still want to do it.
What your saying is that the people who may have been guarding a nest allowed someone or some people to rob the nest in order to get a conviction.
Well if that is true i am gobsmacked.........because it must be the only case in the history of protection where the thief has been allowed to carry out the theft of an egg to warrant a conviction i really do find this hard to believe but if you have that on good authority than you know a lot more than I do for sure.
if what your saying is true and the prosecution went ahead could you elaborate on the year the theft took place , what his or their sentence and fine was ??? With a good bit of homework really you should even be able to come up with the circumstances of how they were caught and why they were allowed to go as far as to steal whatever it was they stole. 1 egg 2 eggs...how long had they been waiting for these thieves to turn up and maybe more importantly why the egg/s were not put back straight away giving the parents time to continue incubating.
Hundreds of eeryies have been photographed over the years with eggs in the nest and have still went on to be incubated until hatching by the parents.
GE do not desert easily, like most other birds they will come back to incubate eggs and feed young , it is only when they are kept away from the nest for a prolonged period of time that they will give up.
Anyway im not disputing what you have said because I don't know...but some kind of records would back up your story. A lot of peregrine sites were robbed and even destroyed back in the 70s 80s and even the 90s all which have been publicised to deter anymore would be robbers etc etc , im sure that if A GE site had been robbed especially in this vicinity it would have been big news.
I know that the original site was robbed as it was very very easy to access...what I would dispute is that it was allowed to be robbed.
Anyway we all have our own thoughts about what has gone on and what's going on as we speak...........if we all thought alike we would not be having this very heated debate.
Just remember though thee most respected and first class ornithologist this country has ever come across did not have a Schedule 1 licence.
Work that one out !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
regards
David