Possibly walking on eggshells

[NatureBoy]

Customer would like to give me her late husbands old bird egg collection!

He was in his 80's and collected them as a youth before the Protection of birds act 1954 and wild life and conservation act 1981.

With the bit of research i have done seems a bit of a grey area legally to have them. It's an amazing looking collection and all the eggs are numbered.

No identification info though or paperwork found as yet. Has anyone got or been given and old collection?? It would be a same for them to be destroyed as the RSPB site suggests as they are a thing of beauty!?

 

NB

 

 

[islandgun]

been to few museums including the natural history museum in London and seem to remember they have a few eggs knocking about !

[KFC]

Have a word with Tring Natural History Museum. They have a massive collection.

They also have thousands of stuffed animal, some of which it's hard to believe they exist, so it's well worth a visit, a special day out for kids too.

 

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit/tring.html

[Old farrier]

I have

Send a pm if you want to know how to sort it

All the best

Of

[NatureBoy]

From what i have read museums not really interested any more unless you can prove provenance. Says many don't display them nowadays either.

Would like to except them for myself to keep as he was a luvly ol boy and great conservationest, naturalist and writer. Proper gent to! But not sure about the legal situation?? NB

[gibby]

http://www.rspb.org.uk/joinandhelp/campaignwithus/law/old_collections/

 

Go for it. My uncle gave me his and they look something special cased on the wall.

 

Gibby

[wisdom]

Acording to the link above and based on your original post you should be legally ok.

[scotslad]

There was an advert a while back in local papr for a stuffed sparrowhawk and barn owl, phoned them up no paper work.

 

Done some research myself acording to some taxidermy sites u need a licence to sell them but not to be given them but u then cannot sell them.

U can apply for paperwork for them. It was snh in scotland so i imagine EN

I know not taxidermey but would imagine similar rules, think the site was called taxidermy law and listed the various conditions for the different species

 

The lass selling them has seemingly sold a few protected birds all without papers and she swore it was ok but i was not convinced, and with having guns can just see polis coming round to renew my tickets and see a load of protected stuffed birds staring back at them.

Seemingly someone was done for doing that on ebay a few years ago

 

Mibee even be worth phoning ur org/basc? Would be a real shame to destroy them, possibly a signed letter from customer may cover u?

 

Reading that link i'd say u'll be ok possibly ask for a letter stating when where eggs came from.

But i think it would be illegal to sell them

Edited May 13, 2016 by scotslad

[figgy]

As a child I had a egg collection, we used to go to local museum and look at what we liked then try and find them. Not allowed anymore,there were some fantastic collections around in the 80's.

[Davyo]

Seems crazy now but like figgy said every lad at school collected eggs in the 70's.Don't know what it was like in the south but we used to go out all day egg collecting.We used to have a little code of practice,that was we only took 1 egg from each nest and if there was only 1 in the nest we would leave it.We always thought that if there was only 1 and you took it the mother would desert the nest.I used to keep mine in a wooden tray& the eggs where seated in fine sawdust.

[JDog]

A clever title.

[Royboy]

Take em home and nobody will be any wiser ? If you do get found with them just act dumb ? It's not the crime of the century ha

[Old farrier]

Take em home and nobody will be any wiser ? If you do get found with them just act dumb ? It's not the crime of the century ha

Sorry and not having a go

 

But

 

Not really very good advice

The collection of birds eggs is considered a very serious crime

 

Just saying like 🙃........

All the best

Of

[Royboy]

I didn't realise it was so bad ! I best lob my grandads in the bin !

[Royboy]

I've just been reading about it, so if you can prove the eggs where from before a certain date your fine ?

[scotslad]

I had the chance to buy some stuffed hawks very cheap as i mentioned, but if ur a shooter or especially a keeper and they found them, it could very well go down as a wildlife crime and u'd figure in rspb stats. Alongside poisoners etc

 

The problem may lie in actualy proving the eggs are pre 54, strictly speaking any after that would be illegal.

When i was a boy like most others i had them in some boxes stuffed wth cotton wool but i knew ur weren't meant to

 

Doubt it would be an issue for joe public, but i can see it being more of an issue for a shooter but it would depend how much the polis/rspb did not like u.

Even being suspected of wildlife crime could lose u ur tickets nowadays

I have heard of keepers threatened with prosecution with keeping out of date weedkiller in wrong containers, so it can go down as a pesticide/poisoning conviction.

i would just not trust the rspb to accurately ***** the collection

Edited May 14, 2016 by scotslad

[dabbers]

http://www.rspb.org.uk/joinandhelp/campaignwithus/law/old_collections/

[KFC]

Seems crazy now but like figgy said every lad at school collected eggs in the 70's.Don't know what it was like in the south but we used to go out all day egg collecting.We used to have a little code of practice,that was we only took 1 egg from each nest and if there was only 1 in the nest we would leave it.We always thought that if there was only 1 and you took it the mother would desert the nest.I used to keep mine in a wooden tray& the eggs where seated in fine sawdust.

Same in t'south. A shoe box with cotton wool in my bedroom draw and learning to blow eggs was a rite of passage.

50's and 60's

We had the same code but I pushed my luck one day and lost out. I'd climbed an Ivy covered Elm tree that had lots of Tree Sparrows nests in it. I took one egg from half a dozen nests.

So I had both hands free for climbing back down I put the eggs in my mouth. I was about half way down when I clonked my chin on a branch and ended up with a mouthful of raw egg and egg shells, yeeeuuuccckkk!!!!

 

Also, a spoon on the end of a garden cane or a split Hazel stick were the common methods for gathering Moorhen's (Moggy) eggs to boil in a tin can on the camp fire.

Aaah, they were the days.

[figgy]

Was waiting for someone to bring up putting the eggs in your mout to climb. Think all of us have done same lots of times. Mate fine it with a gollied egg seeing him spit allsorts of colours out and heaving was the highlight of our day.

 

Most kids in the 70's I know had in their pockets a pen knife or Bowie knife catapult or air pistol to out and about for a days rummaging around the countryside.

 

Lots of things your not allowed to do these days you could back then like taking whatever you wanted off the beach or from rock pools.

 

How many of your friends fell out of trees getting eggs?

 

Victorian egg collections were at one time worth a small fortune.

 

Hope the op gets sorted, BASC maybe worth a call to see were you would stand. If it was me I'd politely decline due to too many potential problems.

[hawkeye]

Remember climbing this great fir tree when i was a lad to get at what i thought was a carrion crows nest..

It was a hell of a climb and when i stuck my hand in the nest a load of squirrels shot out nearly fell down the tree

with shock.. was a lot more careful after that.. once i had changed my underpants

[MonkeyKong]

Have a word with Tring Natural History Museum. They have a massive collection.

They also have thousands of stuffed animal, some of which it's hard to believe they exist, so it's well worth a visit, a special day out for kids too.

 

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit/tring.html

+1

[wymberley]

This used to be a very popular hobby with the Clergy. In the mid 80s in Norfolk the Church was building smaller vicarages in the grounds of the larger ones, doing up the latter and then selling them off. Went to one to check on progress and found the local vicar in a discussion with the builders on how to move a cabinet. This had about 10 drawers, 4ft wide by some 3 ft deep and each was full of collected eggs beautifully laid out. A museum piece in its own right. I'll just add, it was all legit'.