On the trail of the cruel peregrine falcon egg thieves
Nada was in court to hear the detail of a calculated and daring attempt to steal incredibly rare and valuable birds’ eggs
Attaching a rope to the top of the quarry, Christopher Wheeldon abseiled down its sheer face to a ledge where a pair of peregrine falcons had made their nest.
In a Mission Impossible-style stunt, the 34-year-old snatched the clutch of three reddish-brown eggs incubating there before placing them in an insulated bag.
As Wheeldon and his accomplice carried out this despicable act, the chicks’ parents sounded distress calls which echoed in the air.
Given the remoteness of the location in Derbyshire, his crime may have gone unnoticed.
But just weeks before the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) had set up a covert camera to monitor the nest.
Their dramatic footage captured the drug-addicted former tree surgeon stealing the eggs and the heartbreaking moment the parent birds - one of Britain’s most protected species - decided to abandon their empty nest.
Wheeldon was spared the pain of having to sit through the film during his sentencing hearing last week after the sound failed at Southern Derbyshire Magistrates' Court, District, where I sat on the press bench.
Jailing Wheeldon for 18 weeks, Judge Stephen Flint told him: ''You may see them simply as eggs for profit but this causes damage to the environment and it is a deplorable thing to do.”
The RSPB says its likely the birds were stolen to order and are now in the overseas falconry trade.
Sadly, this case is not rare.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to This is Planet Earth with Nada Farhoud to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.