Poached Page #5

such as myself, with really

keen birding volunteers.

So in a way, it's

almost a nature's army.

We're creating an army out

of enthusiasts, experts,

professionals, and we're all

working together for the same goal.

And it enables the birds

to hopefully produce young.

The authorities

can suck [beeped].

That's what they can do.

Keep chasing their tails.

That's what they're doing.

Chasing their tails.

[muffled] the RSPB.

All right? [muffled] them.

Catch me if you can.

Whatever.

Six months in jail.

I have sh*t fear of that.

[laughs]

[mournful instrumental

music playing]

There were people coming every year to

try and steal the eggs of white-tailed eagles.

And the community just rose up against

it, really, and said, enough is enough.

So that's how Mull

Eagle Watch was born.

The Mull Eagle Watch

Project was able to protect

the few nests that were here in

the late '90s and early 2000s.

You know, it's gone from

a single pair in 1985.

And this year, it's

going to be up to 20.

I've got two coffees

to go, Cheryl, okay?

Okay, no problem.

- [David] Can I get a piece of that?

- Yep, mm-hmm.

- How are you doing, Cheryl?

- I'm doing okay.

- Yeah?

- Yeah, I'm doing all right.

[Cheryl laughs]

[Cheryl] The north part

of Mull, as a community,

we take a pride in protecting

these wonderful birds.

And what myself and

my partner will do

is at weekends we will walk out

and go and check on the nests

and make sure there's

no disturbance going on.

I think the biggest thing

when I watched them last year,

it was a true honor, I couldn't get over how

that mother bird was by sitting on those eggs.

And you're talking about 38

days of sitting on those eggs,

through torrent weather

through the winter.

You know, rain, snow, wind,

on the top of that tree,

swaying around, there's not many people I

know would sit out that long on two eggs.

It's a stamina. It's a perseverance.

It's a fight for survival.

You know, all of that that's

going into those eggs.

So, you know, when people steal them, I

think it's a hideous, hideous crime.

I still think we should have

a sign over here somewhere.

Something that just

says, nesting birds.

- Sea birds nesting, yes.

- Take care of.

[Mary] When I came to

Britain from Zimbabwe,

I really didn't

know the difference

between an eagle and a robin or

a blackbird or anything else.

And when Mr. Sexton from

the RSPB came to our house

and he said to me, would

I be interested in doing

a bit of eagle watch, and I didn't

really know what he was talking about.

I had no idea.

And he said it involved keeping

an eye on a pair of sea eagles

and trying to make sure that

nobody disturbed them in any way.

And so I said, "Yeah, okay." You

know, it was no big deal, really.

So I went down

roughly to the area,

and the most amazing

thing happened.

This eagle, it came out from some

trees and flew straight over me.

It must've been maybe 70

or 80 feet above my head.

I could hear the

wind in its wings.

I could see the yellow in its eyes, and I

actually get quite emotional about this

because it was just the

most beautiful experience.

And I couldn't believe there were

people who would harm these birds

or would even

think of stealing their eggs.

We went through quite a

lot of trauma in Zimbabwe.

And rather than go onto antidepressants

and other sorts of drugs,

I found a huge

amount of comfort and therapy

in looking after these, or helping

to look after these birds.

I've looked after

this particular pair

now for about seven

years, and I love it.

I swear, they're in

love with each other.

They can sit really, really

close together on a treetop.

You can't see

daylight between them.

And they'll preen each

other and preen themselves,

and they always talk to each

other. Just so human, somehow.

Each year that I've done

it, this particular pair

have produced two chicks.

That's, what, 14 chicks I've seen

come into the world and fly off.

It's like watching an aircraft

doing circuits and bumps.

You know, when the pilots are learning to

fly, they go up and down, up and down.

And that's just what happens

with these young birds.

And then,

after a few days,

they'll fly strongly before

they actually disappear

off into the wide, wide world.

I'm sure an egg thief would

say, "Well, it doesn't matter.

Yeah, they'll lay eggs again."

But it's like you say to

somebody who's lost a child.

In my humble opinion, it's just the same

as taking a baby away from a mother.

Do you think those birds

haven't got feelings?

Can you imagine the racket they will make if

somebody climbs that tree and takes the eggs.

I can't bear to think of that.

I know you don't, you, the egg

collector, you don't care,

but you should care.

This is my little lad. I mean, he's probably

about three, four years of age there.

And this is my friends,

again, in Scotland.

And I feel it's important to get young children

like this as close to wildlife and that.

And his mom said

to me, she said,

"Just because you're into birds, you know, you

can't make him go into birds when he's older."

I take him out and about, and I

just let him do his own thing.

And I think he's going to follow in

my footsteps because he loves it.

You know, and this

is my lad, Andrew,

and this is with a

European eagle-owl.

[I Like Birds playing]

[Andrew exclaims]

Some people

used to shoot birds

just because they wanted to put them in

cases like this so they could look at 'em.

Do you think that's

right or wrong?

Uh, are you sad? Are you sad?

I know.

I can understand.

Because it's not nice, is it?

Because we'd rather see these

birds in the wild, wouldn't we?

And that's so we

can photograph them.

Do you see all these up here?

These are what all the lords

used to kill a long time ago

because people used to do this.

I know, it's very disturbing,

isn't it, for a little boy.

But this is what the

lords used to do.

Now, I never thought you'd get upset.

But it's, in another way...

I never thought... Listen. When Daddy

brought you in ... He's very sorry.

He didn't think you'd get upset looking at

things like this, right? But listen. Listen.

This is called education because

there's people like you

that want to learn

about wildlife.

And they go and tell

others that it's wrong.

So they boycott all this,

and they stop all this,

so that little boys like you

don't need to get upset anymore at

seeing dead birds and dead animals.

Because we'd rather

see them in the wild. Okay?

Come on. Stop being soft now.

Come on. Stop it.

Listen. Listen. Can you stop crying?

Try and be a bit professional.

I want the golden eagle egg.

There's no golden

eagle in there.

This here, it's not a

very, very good collection,

but these are what the lords

from the past have collected.

You know, from when

it all started.

And it's actually really, really

good field craft to find them.

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