Numerous illegalities such as the widespread use of illegal bird callers and attempts to kill protected birds have been noted at the opening of the spring hunting season, the Munich-based Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) said on Wednesday.
The latest victim of illegal hunting was a female Kestrel [Spanjulet] which was found by a CABS team on Easter Monday in a valley close to Birzebbuġa. The bird suffered shotgun injuries and was handed over to Birdlife Malta for treatment. A vet later confirmed that the bird was shot.
On Tuesday, a CABS team found and reported an active trapping site for protected Hawfinches in a field near the airport. When the trapper saw ALE police approach, he took the caged finch decoys and left the site. ALE officers removed the trapping nets and CABS have passed video evidence and the number plate of the trapper's car to ALE for court proceedings.
CABS released footage showing dozens of cases of illegal bird trapping and hunting recorded by its teams since March.
Aside from many cases of illegal finch trapping the film also shows a poacher hunting during the closed season near Għar Lapsi.
One protected bird shot every day
In a separate statement, Birdlife Malta said that since the start of this year’s spring hunting season on Friday, it and police recovered one illegally shot protected bird every day, for a total of five known illegally shot protected birds.
On Friday a dead Common Kestrel (Spanjulett) was retrieved by the Gozo police from Għajnsielem, on Saturday a member of the public found a European Bee-eater (Qerd in-Naħal) at Salina with injury to its right wing, on Sunday a Hoopoe (Daqquqa tat-Toppu) was found by the public in Floriana with an injury to its left wing, on Monday another Common Kestrel with a broken wing was found by a Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) team in Birżebbuġa, and on Tuesday a Collared Dove (Gamiema tal-Kullar) with an open fracture to its left wing was found by a member of the public in Wardija.
All birds were taken to the Malta Government veterinarian who confirmed they were illegally shot.
"These birds are just the ones we managed to recover, and our teams have witnessed more protected birds being shot at during the past days, such as the Grey Heron (Russett Griż) which was observed in flight over Għadira with very evident gunshot injuries to one of its wings, Birdlife said.