January 6, 2021
The Falcon Thief:
A True Tale of Adventure, Treachery, and the Hunt for the Perfect Bird
Josh Hammer
Former Newsweek Bureau Chief and Correspondent in Africa and the Middle East
Lanny Jones, Introducer, and Josh Hammer
Minutes of the 14th Meeting of the 79th Year
President Stephen Schreiber called the meeting to order just after 10:15 AM. Priscilla Roosevelt read the minutes of the previous meeting. One hundred thirty-eight members attended the Zoom meeting, as well as Abbe Binstock, who is an applicant for membership proposed by Micky Weyeneth. President Schreiber noted that two Old Guard members, Paul Hill and Philip Cruickshank, recently died. The following members were promoted to Emeritus status and will receive new badges at the next in-person meeting. We congratulate all new emeriti.
Lanny Jones introduced Josh Hammer, who spoke about his book, The Falcon Thief: A True Tale of Adventure, Treachery, and the Hunt for the Perfect Bird. Hammer was born in New York City and educated at Horace Mann School and Princeton University, graduating with a B.A. in English literature. In 1988 he joined Newsweek Magazine as a business and media writer, transitioning to the magazine's foreign correspondent corps in 1992. He then served as correspondent-at-large in 2005 and 2006. Since then, he has written frequently for the New York Times Magazine, GQ, The New Yorker, National Geographic, The Atlantic, and Smithsonian. The Falcon Thief was published by Simon and Schuster in February 2020; a paperback edition will be released this February.
In his nonfiction thriller and Old Guard presentation, Hammer described the life of master falcon egg and bird thief Jeffrey Lendrum, who grew up in Zimbabwe, on land that hosted 48 different species of raptor birds. As a 12-year-old, he became incredibly adept at climbing. He and his father began to capture and sell rare birds. When he was 24 years old, he was captured at Birmingham, UK, airport with 14 rare peregrine falcon eggs strapped to his body. He had collected the eggs, worth between $100,000 and $150,000 from the cliffs in Wales. He was convicted but then released.
Detective Andy Williams of the United Kingdom’s National Wildlife Unit was the key researcher and investigator who identified Lendrum as a major international bird thief. Williams focused on and worked to stop Lendrum’s endangering the world’s rare birds of prey.
Next, Lendrum became an international captor and seller of endangered raptor eggs worth millions of dollars. His plundering and pillaging of the environment occurred in the United Kingdom, Chilean Patagonia, Zimbabwe, and Canada.
Lendrum sought and found rare bird eggs he captured, hid on his body, stored in heated boxes, and transported for sale to the Arab bird market. Arabs have been fascinated with birds of prey for over 3,000 years. Lendrum sold successful racing birds for an estimated $250,000 each. These birds competed in the annual President’s Cup competition held in the United Arab Emirates capital Abu Dhabi. Competing gyrfalcon and peregrine falcons can both fly horizontally at 60 mph and dive bomb vertically at 180 mph from an altitude of 5,000 feet to capture their land-based prey. This competition awards prizes valued up to $15-20 million to the top falconers.
Lendrum and his team twice stole eggs from the Canadian Arctic, at which time he was again caught and convicted. He then traveled to Chilean Patagonia to steal the eggs of rare white-chested peregrine falcons. He was again caught, convicted, and sentenced to a five-year prison term in Brazil, but he escaped to South Africa.
In 2017, author Josh Hammer met with Lendrum in person in Pretoria, South Africa. He found Lendrum to be tired, old, sick with prostate cancer, and remorseful. Their online contact continued until 2018, when Lendrum was again arrested for egg theft. He was incarcerated for a two-and-a-half-year term that, for the very first time, he actually served in a United Kingdom prison. The Brazilian government has continued to try to extradite him to serve his remaining five-year prison term.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and his medical condition, Lendrum has now been released from prison and is awaiting resolution of his case.
Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring resulted in environmental protection laws that now prohibit the capture and sale of rare birds in countries around the world. Terms of imprisonment for these crimes are now much more stringent, especially in the United Kingdom where the sentence is now seven years.
Respectfully submitted,
Martin Schneiderman
- Bylin, Arthur
- Chandler, Alice
- Daley, Eliot
- Daley, Patricia
- McLaughlin, George
- Morrison, Karl
- Poritz, Deborah
Lanny Jones introduced Josh Hammer, who spoke about his book, The Falcon Thief: A True Tale of Adventure, Treachery, and the Hunt for the Perfect Bird. Hammer was born in New York City and educated at Horace Mann School and Princeton University, graduating with a B.A. in English literature. In 1988 he joined Newsweek Magazine as a business and media writer, transitioning to the magazine's foreign correspondent corps in 1992. He then served as correspondent-at-large in 2005 and 2006. Since then, he has written frequently for the New York Times Magazine, GQ, The New Yorker, National Geographic, The Atlantic, and Smithsonian. The Falcon Thief was published by Simon and Schuster in February 2020; a paperback edition will be released this February.
In his nonfiction thriller and Old Guard presentation, Hammer described the life of master falcon egg and bird thief Jeffrey Lendrum, who grew up in Zimbabwe, on land that hosted 48 different species of raptor birds. As a 12-year-old, he became incredibly adept at climbing. He and his father began to capture and sell rare birds. When he was 24 years old, he was captured at Birmingham, UK, airport with 14 rare peregrine falcon eggs strapped to his body. He had collected the eggs, worth between $100,000 and $150,000 from the cliffs in Wales. He was convicted but then released.
Detective Andy Williams of the United Kingdom’s National Wildlife Unit was the key researcher and investigator who identified Lendrum as a major international bird thief. Williams focused on and worked to stop Lendrum’s endangering the world’s rare birds of prey.
Next, Lendrum became an international captor and seller of endangered raptor eggs worth millions of dollars. His plundering and pillaging of the environment occurred in the United Kingdom, Chilean Patagonia, Zimbabwe, and Canada.
Lendrum sought and found rare bird eggs he captured, hid on his body, stored in heated boxes, and transported for sale to the Arab bird market. Arabs have been fascinated with birds of prey for over 3,000 years. Lendrum sold successful racing birds for an estimated $250,000 each. These birds competed in the annual President’s Cup competition held in the United Arab Emirates capital Abu Dhabi. Competing gyrfalcon and peregrine falcons can both fly horizontally at 60 mph and dive bomb vertically at 180 mph from an altitude of 5,000 feet to capture their land-based prey. This competition awards prizes valued up to $15-20 million to the top falconers.
Lendrum and his team twice stole eggs from the Canadian Arctic, at which time he was again caught and convicted. He then traveled to Chilean Patagonia to steal the eggs of rare white-chested peregrine falcons. He was again caught, convicted, and sentenced to a five-year prison term in Brazil, but he escaped to South Africa.
In 2017, author Josh Hammer met with Lendrum in person in Pretoria, South Africa. He found Lendrum to be tired, old, sick with prostate cancer, and remorseful. Their online contact continued until 2018, when Lendrum was again arrested for egg theft. He was incarcerated for a two-and-a-half-year term that, for the very first time, he actually served in a United Kingdom prison. The Brazilian government has continued to try to extradite him to serve his remaining five-year prison term.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and his medical condition, Lendrum has now been released from prison and is awaiting resolution of his case.
Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring resulted in environmental protection laws that now prohibit the capture and sale of rare birds in countries around the world. Terms of imprisonment for these crimes are now much more stringent, especially in the United Kingdom where the sentence is now seven years.
Respectfully submitted,
Martin Schneiderman