Secret cameras to protect rare Westcountry birds from suspected egg collectors and poisoners have led to two arrests – just two days after they were installed.
Devon and Cornwall Police and wildlife groups joined forces for Operation Wilderness to safeguard threatened species including goshawk, peregrine falcon, red-backed shrike and cirl bunting.
And the operation has already resulted in the arrest of two men on suspicion of disturbing a peregrine falcon nest at a coastal site in South Devon.
The men, one aged 44 and the other 43, who are both from Brixham, were arrested on Tuesday and Wednesday this week.
Both were quizzed before being released pending further inquiries.
Wildlife crime officer PC Josh Marshall said the pair had approached the peregrine's nest, which currently has one egg in it.
They had been arrested on suspicion of disturbing a Schedule 1 protected bird under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.
The operation was publicly announced earlier this month. Ten cameras have been placed at the nest sites of previously targeted species.
Volunteers, acting under police licences, have located difficult-to-find nest sites and installed the covert cameras.
The action was taken after a series of high-profile bird poisoning incidents in Devon and Cornwall last year.
"A number of incidents indicated that nationally important species of birds are being persecuted within Devon," PC Marshall said when the operation was launched.
"Four goshawks were found poisoned with a dead, poisoned buzzard. This was approximately 20 per cent of Devon's breeding population of goshawk.
"A number of peregrine falcons have also been found poisoned in the region.
"Toxicology reports indicate they died through ingesting the banned pesticide Carbofuran."
The red-backed shrike, wiped out as a breeding species in England due to persecution from egg collectors, is attempting to breed in this country for the first time in 20 years at a secret location on southern Dartmoor.
A 24-hour watch wardening scheme was run in the summers of 2010 and 2011.
The site was visited by known egg collectors but the scheme resulted in successful breeding by one pair of shrikes in 2010 and two pairs in 2011.
PC Marshall said that the taking of birds' eggs had been illegal in Britain since at least 1954.
It was also illegal to photograph Schedule 1 species at or near the nest site without appropriate licences, he added.
The Devon Bird Watching and Preservation Society is funding the covert wildlife cameras, which police hope will provide evidence for prosecutions.
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