An "obsessive" wild bird egg collector is facing jail after being caught with a huge illegal hoard of almost 3,000 specimens, including some from the UK's most endangered species.
Daniel Lingham, 71, was caught after he was spotted on a wildlife camera stealing two eggs from a nightjar nest at a Norfolk nature reserve.
He was identified by his distinctive walking stick and when police searched his home at Newton St Faith, near Norwich, they found almost 3,000 eggs.
Lingham has been stealing eggs for six decades, having picked up the habit from his father.
He has been jailed for his hobby - which was outlawed in 1954 - twice in the last 20 years.
He was back at Norwich Magistrates Court this week where he pleaded guilty to five offences.
They related to his raid at Holt Lowes, a Norfolk Wildlife Trust reserve near Holt, where he was detected by a camera last June.
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The following month, when police searched his home, they found 2,995 eggs, including 2,429 native bird eggs protected by the Wildlife and Countryside Act.
Of these, 546 were from birds on the most serious list of conservation concern, including linnet, green finch, yellowhammer and house sparrow.
Another collection of eggs, found behind a bath panel, included a pair of nightjar eggs labelled ‘Nightjar 2, Holt Lowes June 9’.
Officers also found identifying books, binoculars, and an egg-blowing kit.
Lingham claimed the majority of the eggs had been taken before his previous conviction in 2018, but the way they were stored suggested otherwise.
He also claimed one of the collections on display in his bedroom had come from a house clearance.
He told police his egg collecting was a mental health addiction and admitted stealing the nightjar eggs, saying he had been looking for adders and tiger beetles when he was “tempted”.
Lingham was previously jailed for 10 weeks in 2005 after police found a collection of almost 4,000 eggs in his home, and for 18 weeks in 2018 when he was found with over 5,000 eggs.
In 2018, he was caught by police at Cawston Heath dressed in camouflage, with a wooden catapult, binoculars and tree-climbing 'crampon-style' boots.
He told officers: "I've been a silly man, haven't I?"
He was handed a 10-year Criminal Behaviour Order banning him from wildlife sites such as Holt Lowes across Norfolk and the UK.
Many of these site names appeared on the labels of his egg collections.
Chris Shelley, from the Operation Randall Rural Crime Team, said: “Egg collecting should be a hobby that is confined to the history books having been made illegal in 1954.
“Thankfully there are very few individuals now committing this crime but these few, including Lingham, cause a huge amount of harm to 1000s of birds including some of our most at risk species.
“We would always encourage anyone who sees suspicious activity around bird nests in the coming months to report as much detail as possible using our online form or 999 if in progress.”
Tom Grose, RSPB Investigations Officer, said: “The scale of egg theft which Lingham has committed over the last 20 years is shocking.
"Sadly, his obsession with collecting wild birds’ eggs has ultimately resulted in thousands of breeding birds, which have invested huge amounts of energy into rearing young, to fail.”
At court this week, he pleaded guilty to: taking eggs from a non-schedule 1 wild bird namely a Nightjar on June 9, 2023 at Holt; possessing an egg or its parts of a non-schedule 1 wild bird, namely 2,429 eggs on July 25, 2023; possessing an egg or its parts of a schedule 1 wild bird – namely 22 Schedule 1 bird eggs on July 2023; possessing articles capable of being used to identify and take eggs; breaching a Criminal Behaviour Order on June 9, 2023.
He will be sentenced on May 3.
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