This horrendous story hit the headlines this week.
Ex-police officer involved In egg collectingWhat is interesting is that the police officer involved made a trip to Devon in the late 90's to take Cettis Warblers eggs. He documents within his diary that he met up with a 'truly' gifted nest finder at Slapton Ley.
Here courtesy of the RSPB is an entry from one of the police officers diaries regarding his visit to Slapton Ley
1 Full Entry from PC Upson’s Diary
“29th April 1997,
By 7am my friend and I were in a nature reserve at Slapton in South Devon. By about 7.05am I had heard and seen my first Cetti’s warbler, the purpose of the visit. I took an instant liking to this bird with its cocked tail and most striking and powerful song it seemed full of character. I felt I quickly got to know the bird as it flitted from one song post to another to give a brief rendition at each point. I was told it would have four or five song posts.
We stood and watched for quite a while two cock birds that were close to each other. Finding our way across the river, blocked because someone had removed the footbridge we finally found a fallen willow bough and crossed the river on that. We were then in a boggy thicket of willows, reeds, sedges, brambles and nettles. Donning gloves we searched the bramble and nettle patches and my friend found an empty nest really quite exposed 3inches off the ground in scant cover. There was taller cover behind it. We carried on and again he found another nest in thicker cover in bramble and nettles 2 inch of the ground containing 2 eggs. We then left these two birds and their nests, traversed the river over the bough and back to the footpath.
Further along and we spent time on another. We broke through behind the bramble break and searched where we considered the nest could be but found nothing.
So on we moved to another one and my friend found a predated nest in the bramble. By now it was past 11am and we started to encounter people, two rubbernecks, a party of school children and the occasional couple walking dogs. With that we walked out and across some meadows to get to the back of the reserve where we had earlier heard one across the reserve. On what was now a warm morning we sat and waited and listened. After a while we heard the unmistakable song from a clump of willows. I must add here that we were sitting on the grazing meadow which sloped down to a complete swamp of reeds, clumps of willows, green hogweed type plant, completely wet and treacherous, the sort of place I would have not been surprised to have seen a hippopotamus.
With that, he, a truly gifted nest finder, decided that the nest must be near the willows. Now if I had been on my own I would have thought it impossible to reach the trees due to the nature of the terrain. However that though never entered his head. With the aid of a log over the first swamp we then carefully picked and sploshed our way to the trees.
We climbed over the boughs to get across more water and started searching. I never really thought we would find the nest, the area was vast and every square foot was suitable for a nest. Indeed we were about to give up when he whistled me and called me over. I splashed and struggled to get to him and he showed me the nest 2ft off the water amongst reeds and nettles. It contained the most beautiful c/5 I have ever seen, like five aniseed balls nestled together. The nest was built of grasses, sedges and reed flower heads lined with finer grasses, hairs and dark feathers. We pulled out of there, I went in to the water up to the top of my right wellington boot and had to kneel on my left knee in order to extract it.
Half an hour later I returned on my own to get the goodies. I converted a flora tub in to an egg box by putting my handkerchief in it covered in tissue paper. One again I crossed on the narrow log, put my left boot completely below the water, climbed back over the bough, reached the nest, saw the bird flit off and then put the eggs in the folds of the handkerchief. I then saw her return and I came out again. I later found the eggs were completely fresh – After taking them I squelched back to my car where I could hear voices shouting however I assumed them to be chaps moving livestock by the tone of the shouts and indeed I never saw them. I then started on the long journey home absolutely thrilled and delighted with the clutch and pleased I had learned a little bit more about the nesting habits of a bird completely new to me.”
2 Cetti’s warbler (Cettis cetti) is a Schedule 1 breeding species, which at the time of this incident was localised and rare. Since then its population and range has expanded. The five eggs taken on this trip were located within the eggs seized from Mr Upson’s house (eggs 380-384).
And now the Good Cop bit...
On Tuesday I attended the South Devon Police Awards Ceromony to pick up an award for OPERATION WILDERNESS....
This couldn't have happened without the help of the
The Devon birdwatching and preservation society who helped fund the covert cameras. Also a massive thanks to the volunteers who assisted with the management of the cameras. Also a special thanks needs to go to Mark Darlaston who has provided invaluable advice and support throughout the process.
Cheers
Josh
