Rfalconcam Forum

BirdLife Malta and the German organisation CABS (Committee Against Bird Slaughter) said today that they would be paying the police for extra escort duties during conservation camps due to start tomorrow.

In a joint statement, they said they welcomed the authorities' recent confirmation that police officers on extra duties would be assigned to the conservation camps to ensure the security of the bird watchers, who have faced many attacks in the past.

BirdLife and CABS last July requested police officers on extra duty, against payment by these organisations, after an escalation of violence against bird watchers.

The windscreen of a Raptor Camp car blasted with a shotgun while parked 20 meters from a children's playground, rocks were thrown at volunteers and two BirdLife volunteers were beaten up Dingli, among other incidents.

To date only the two aggressors who assaulted BirdLife volunteers in Dingli have been convicted, thanks to video evidence of the attack gathered and presented by BirdLife Malta.

BirdLife said its office had received many reports of illegal hunting after a storm brought many migratory birds into Malta seeking shelter.

A Common Kestrel from Delimara and a Purple Heron from Gozo - with two pellets embedded internally - were delivered to BirdLife office yesterday. An injured Grey Heron was also passed on to the ALE in Delimara. BirdLife also received a shot Night Heron with three internal pellets from Hal Far today and a shot Little Bittern from Marsa a few days ago.

Since the start of the hunting season BirdLife said it had recorded illegal shooting at protected species including Osprey, Honey-buzzard, Eleonora's Falcon, Hobby, Night Heron, Red Knot, Little Egret and Mediterranean Gull. Illegal sea hunting for protected Oystercatchers and Shelduck using high powered speedboats has also been recorded by BirdLife field teams.

A shot Turtle Dove, which may be legally hunted, was also received yesterday.

68 volunteers from 10 countries are joining the BirdLife and CABS conservation camps until September 26.

Donna, you may know this from any links in the info you just posted... but anything we can do to suppport the efforts of BirdLife International in Malta would be money well spent. Every migration season, an untold number of birds are shot as they pass over this country... and I have read (tho this is only anecdotal as I am relying on memory) that one only "becomes a man" when he has shot a bird of prey. Other illegal trapping and shooting goes on all across the Mediterranean, but Malta's reputation seems to "beat" all others. Spain, for example, loves to sell "pajaritos" (pah-har-EE-toes] in its cafes and bars. "Pajaritos" are the sad, tiny remains of songbirds trapped in mist nets, then roasted and offered for sale. I have more than once removed myself from any premises that has these on sale. (It is illegal, but obviously a blind eye is turned... or many blind eyes...) And believe me, you do not have to speak the language to make your protest known.

Sorry for the rant - but this is something that perhaps many of you do not know about, and spreading the word, as Donna has, is very necessary.

UNBELIEVABLE!!! People so disgust me! >:(

 :viking: I am not a violent person (really) but I get the urge to put buckshot in the a$$ of those stupid hunters. God I hope our lady of the loch doesn't pass that way. I had no idea about the mist nets and what they do in Spain. grrrrrrrr

These jerks have no respect for animals or humans :tickedoff:

I'm afraid that human beings never cease to amaze me these days...  If they did something not self-centred and thoughtless, I think I would then be amazed!!  Perhaps I've been reading too much about the world lately...  But that's how it seems to be these days...   :(

Anne in Toronto