19 January 2024 , 17:38
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Attaching a rope to the top of the quarry, Christopher Wheeldon abseiled down to a ledge, where a pair of peregrine falcons had made their nest.
The 34-year-old snatched the clutch of three reddish-brown eggs, stashing them in an insulated bag. Parents’ distress cries rang out as Wheeldon and an accomplice robbed them of their precious offspring.
Their crime might have gone unnoticed but the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds had set up a covert camera to monitor the nest in Derbyshire. It captured the drug-addicted former tree surgeon stealing the eggs. Wheeldon, of Two Dales, Derbys, was jailed for 18 weeks at southern Derbyshire magistrates court this week.
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.”
Drug-addicted tree surgeon Christopher Wheeldon has been jailed for 18 weeks (DerbyshireLive/BPM)The RSPB says the eggs were stolen to order and the birds, passed off as captive-bred ones, are probably now in the overseas falconry trade. The case is sadly not rare. In a similar case earlier this week, part-time gamekeeper Timothy Hall, 48, and son Lewis, 23, appeared at Jedburgh sheriff court in the Scottish Borders after having sold 22 eggs and birds for sums of up to £25,700. Sentencing was deferred to February 12.
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The court heard that British peregrine falcons, among Britain’s most endangered birds, are sought after in the Middle East where they are used for racing. The Peak District has become a hotspot for stealing them.
Chief Inspector Kevin Kelly, head of the National Wildlife Crime Unit, told the Mirror: “When we think about wildlife crime we tend to think about ivory. But in the UK the biggest issue is the trafficking of peregrine falcons. This crime is low-risk with high rewards, with birds and chicks fetching £5,000-£10,000 each.”
In Middle Eastern countries such as the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, the most prized specimens now change hands for tens of thousands of pounds. At an auction near Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in 2021, a pure white gyrfalcon sold for a record £337,000.
Peregrine falcon numbers have risen since they were protected by the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981 but there are still only 1,500 pairs in the UK. And after a Government registration scheme was axed, it is now virtually impossible to trace wild birds.
Mark Thomas, RSPB Head of Investigations, said: “There has been a very obvious increase in the number of peregrine falcon nests being robbed in connection with the falconry trade in the last 15 years, no doubt assisted by the relaxing of UK government registration requirements.”