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

George Smith helped secure the conviction of two men for trading in wild raptors. Now, his work is helping to unveil an illegal multimillion-pound international industry

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."

He shows me a spreadsheet detailing 120 nest sites - as peregrine coordinator at the Scottish Raptor Study Group, he is tracking more than 90% of all peregrine falcons from Edinburgh down to the border with England.