‘It’s soul destroying to find nests have failed’: inside the battle against Scotland’s falcon thieves

George Smith inspects a peregrine falcon nest site in the Scottish borders. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian

George Smith has been tracking the peregrine falcons of south Scotland since 1984. His day job is working in maintenance, but every evening and weekend from March to July, Smith is out with the raptors. The birds nest on cliffs and old quarries – he knows all the sites. Paraphernalia fills the back of his car: fake eggs, ropes, microchip readers and DNA testing kits. “I can’t help myself,” he says. “My wife would like to put a tracker on me.”

Smith uses decoy eggs when capturing parent birds for tagging. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian