Ecological history

The stunning beauty of osprey clutches was not lost on the old naturalists. There was gamesmanship of climbing to nests to collect the eggs.

The 19th Century hobby of egg-collecting was called “oology”. There was even a little journal devoted to it, “The Oologist”, although this appears preposterous from our modern conservation perspective. The 20th Century result was museum cases full of dusty old blown-out eggs. These eggs have given us solid evidence of DDT’s affect.

Thanks for reading,

Harriett