Poached Page #9

Well, I'm going to prove to you.

Your never, ever going to have another

court case with me, you know, and that.

And I'm not going

to let myself down.

I'm not going to

let my son down.

And I've come so far.

I've worked hard to get here.

You know, so thank you for giving me

the opportunity to meet with you.

[crew member] Can I have

a picture together?

Yeah, can we have a...

Yeah, yeah, so...

[Guy] The thing that

strikes me with John

is in view of his history,

his stated intent

that he wants to reform

and move on with his life,

and it does look like he's made

some genuine efforts there.

He then goes and does something crazy

like acquire a load of birds' eggs.

Why on Earth would you do that?

He is responsible

for his own actions.

And, um, if he wants to get into

a position where he's trusted,

issued licenses to photograph

rare breeding birds,

he has to generate that trust.

And if you make bad

decisions, like getting

5,000 or 6,000 eggs in your

house, it doesn't really help.

You know, John Kinsley is left behind

now, and Ben Tarvie's moving forward.

Ben Tarvie's a different person

to what John Kinsley was,

so, you know, let's just

see what the future brings.

[sighs]

[soft instrumental

music playing]

Boy, he got a stroke. Uh, he had a

stroke, and, uh, yeah, he-- He died.

He was a lovely bird, friendly

and he liked being around me.

If I was in there in the

bedroom watching telly,

he'd fly in occasionally, perch

on the telly, sort of like

to say hello like,

you know what I mean?

I was very sad to lose him.

I buried him.

I gave him a funeral. I'm not

going to just get rid of him.

I buried him.

Buried him.

Someone in the street,

someone I know...

Not a friend, but knows

my family and that.

And he says, "Oh, you've

been a bit unlucky."

And I'm thinking, "Oh, I don't

need you to tell me that, don't I?"

You know, losing a sister and

my mom and my dad all at once.

I've got one sister left.

We stopped talking

a few years ago,

but I've got bridges

to build with Jane.

I said some nasty things to her. She said

some things that I didn't like to me,

just family stuff,

because she's still my sister.

Hello, Jane? All right?

Nice to hear ya.

Oh, I'm not too bad.

Are you still with Les?

Yeah, good.

Oh, did ya?

Was ya?

Yeah, I've done

nothing on my birthday.

I'm really pleased for

you, Jane, I really am.

I'm pleased

that you've got Les.

I'm pleased that you've got him

in your life. I really am.

It's hard for me because I've got no one.

There's no one that I can confide in.

The only person I can confide

in is you because you're family.

I know what I said. And, you

know, what I've said, I've said.

You know, I've said sorry.

And, um, it would be nice if we could

be, like, brother and sister again.

All right, nice to speak to ya.

Bye, bye.

Well, I broke the ice with

her, so that's the main thing.

So it was a bit awkward for me,

phoning up, but I'm glad I did.

Mmm.

That's it. All right.

[soft instrumental

music playing]

Egging is finished with me now.

I mean, my eyes are not as good.

I've lost all my stuff, and uh,

it's hard work.

It's just bloody hard work.

And it's for my well being, I suppose,

but I can't really replace it.

Some of the nicest

things I've ever done

has been egg collecting.

There's always sort of

like this romantic scene

or setting about egg collecting,

some of the places.

But I've never shared it with no one.

I've always been on my own.

But some of the places and some of the

things that I've seen have been like,

you know,

you could write a story.

It gives an imagination

of a romantic setting,

like the sun setting

and a big wide sort of, like,

loch in the Highlands

and all that, you know.

And if I'd have had a girl in tow,

I would have taken her with me.

I would have shown her

a few things, you know?

I'd like to find a female.

I'm getting into the latter part of

my life, now. I'm in my 50s, now.

So, you know, I hoping...

To grow old

gracefully, if you like.

Slow down a little bit,

not get so sort of wound up

about things, I suppose.

I've heard it said to me,

my own worst enemy is me.

But that's the way it is.

[dramatic instrumental

music playing]

[knocking on door]

- Hi, John.

- How are you doing?

Nice seeing you again.

Come in.

- Were you there for a while?

- Oh, no. Oh, no.

This is one of the cabinets, and I

did start trying to arrange some it,

you know, a while ago.

How many eggs

are there in the--

I don't know.

I mean, that's just

various lapwings.

Right, and there's

no dates with these?

There i, lapwing cards and

stuff, but I've not sorted them.

And a lot of them, you can't see the marks,

you know, because the eggs are so dark.

It'd be outrageous to smash something

that somebody can learn so much about.

And this is... This should go into

a museum. And I'm sure that...

Well, that's what... hat's what...

I mean, I appreciate, um...

'Cause it would-- It would be wrong

to smash them like that, wouldn't it?

Well, that's

the approach...

You know, we'll be contacting--

We'll start with Liverpool Museum.

'Cause each one of these birds signifies a

bird that's lost its life and that, you know.

So the guy who passed

this over to you,

you've got all his details

or you could give him a call?

I can get it. I can get

something written from him,

and he'll actually give me the person

who it was that he got it from.

And he's died.

He actually went to his funeral.

Right, I mean, that's

going to be, uh, something

we'll be looking

at or looking for.

[music continues]

I'm taking it on what he says,

basically, so...

A lot of that is recent.

A lot of it is modern.

Um...

And what he's doing

is matching. I can see.

'Cause I was just looking

at the data on the eggs.

Although the numbers

are the same,

there's different inks, and

there's names cut of of cards.

Also, I recognize the insets,

I've seen those before.

That another collector did.

At the end of the day,

he's handing it over,

which is, you know,

what we want.

[music continues]

More than I anticipated.

Yeah.

- Thanks for your understanding.

- No worries.

You know, and hopefully,

you know, we can leave--

Yeah, hopefully, we can leave

a few things in the past.

Yeah, we can.

[engine revving]

My name is John Kinsley,

now known as Ben Tarvie,

and I'm an ex egg collector.

All right, the nest

is just in that clump

over there in the short.

You've got to give

everyone a chance.

It's simple as that. Whatever...

The past is past, you know?

I definitely advise

any egg collectors out there

who want to give up

their, um, pointless pursuit

to go and get in touch

with the BTO.

Join the Nest Record Scheme.

I mean, it is so enjoyable.

It is fantastic.

Take up ringing.

Get to handle the birds.

You know, follow

the birds through.

There is nothing like a

joy of seeing the birds.

[soft instrumental

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