There will be a feature on the BBC’s The One Show this evening, documenting how serial egg thief Matthew Gonshaw was caught nicking eggs on the Isle of Rum, thanks to eagle-eyed SNH staff living on the island. This led to legal history when Gonshaw was issued with an ASBO preventing him from ever visiting Scotland again during the breeding season (see here).
BBC 1, this evening, 7pm. Available on BBC iPlayer later this evening for seven days. We’ll add the link when it’s available.
UPDATE 11pm: The link to watch the film on BBC iPlayer (starts at 15.25 min), available for seven days only, is here.
Raptor Persecution UK 
Ah yes…SNH’s proud history of fighting wildlife crime…[how do you find an ironic smiley face again?]..
Agree that SNH are usually less than impressive on the fighting wildlife crime front but on this occasion, it was thanks to one of their resident staff members (Sean Morris) that Gonshaw was caught. Sean recognised what was going on after hearing his wife Ali’s description of Gonshaw’s behaviour on the island and he encouraged her to report it to the police. http://www.isleofrum.com/blog-40-egg-thief-caught-out-on-rum-may-2012
Sure and all credit to him..didnt he work for RSPB at one time?!..anyway, my comment was about the wider decades long view of SNH, who were notably shy about getting their staff involved in anything to do with prosecutions…this exception proves the rule …although eggers always were treated differently than, say, estate staff??
I could never understand why an egger could receive a heavy fine and have his equipment confiscated for his wildlife crime, but a gamekeeper could get off scot free for wildlife persecution and still hold on to his job, his gun licence and his equipment !!! It just doesn’t make sense unless you factor friends in high places into the equation.
Yes nirofo, thats exactly right…I have always said that egg thieves are a pretty disgusting bunch carrying out a disgusting little crime and deserve all they get in scottish courts….but when you compare that to the actual killing of adult birds, or stamping on harrier chicks then it becomes even harder to understand…
Any proof link to Jordain Society?.
Correction it was actually my wife Ali working for Edinburgh University deer project who caught him in the act.
Didn’t SNH also stop the subsidies of Glenogil estate the raptor persecution hot spot which was recently sold.
Did they have a different guy at the top then? Or was that a decision from elsewhere?
I had 2 government staff come to my reserve and told me that they could not report any poison eggs or dead raptors incase the land owner showed them off the land. Their scientific work on counting breeding birds was more important. But your numbers are all man made I said with the removal of all predators! That’s what makes an SSSI they said!