Notorious UK Egg Collector Dies

The most notorious egg collector in the UK, Colin Watson, died when he fell out of a 12 metre tree. Egg collecting has been illegal in the UK since 1981 and offenders risk heavy fines if caught. Any activity near the nests of rare birds attracts immediate police attention.

It was the end of a life which saw a schoolboy hobby develop into a passion that made Watson the most notorious collector of wild birds’ eggs in Britain for two decades. He was convicted six times under wildlife protection laws, fined thousands of pounds and finally had virtually his entire collection – the largest in Britain – confiscated after a raid on his home by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.

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