Rare falcon shot in Buskett

Although the hunting season for birds from land officially opens on September 1, hunters were present on the outskirts of Buskett last Sunday and one of them shot at an Eleonora's falcon, a very rare, protected bird of prey.

Birdwatchers who were in the area said five Eleonora's falcons were seen in the afternoon. Two of the birds were about to alight in the trees after they had been flying over the area when two shots rang out and one of the birds appeared to be hit and flew down towards the valley.

Eleonora's falcons are a peculiar species as their breeding season is much later than that of other birds and they usually have chicks at a time which coincides with the autumn migration, thus facilitating the chances of finding prey.

The world population of Eleonora's falcon is about 3,500 pairs.

Two phases of the bird exist, a light phase, which accounts for 75 per cent of the population, and a dark phase, with the birds being practically all black, accounting for 25 per cent of the population.

Eleonora's falcons winter mainly in Madagascar, returning in April and May. They nest in islets all over the Mediterranean, with an isolated population in the Canaries.

The overwhelming majority of the population is concentrated in Greece, which is estimated to be the nesting area of 75 per cent of the world's population. The Greek population of Eleonora's falcon is under 3,000 pairs.

A pair may have bred in Xlendi, Gozo in the summer of 1997 - a downy, light phase, flightless young was caught by hand in late August of that year.

After breeding, the birds, nesting as far to the west as the Canary Islands, move to the eastern Mediterranean and then south through Suez and the Red Sea, arriving in Madagascar in late November. This is a distance of over 10,000 kilometres for the Canary Islands population.

James Jobling, in his Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names, says the bird was named after the Sardinian heroine Giudicessa Eleonora d'Arborea, who fought for independence from Aragon in the late 14th century and enacted laws protecting nesting birds of prey. The Cypriots, however, claim the bird was named after Eleonora, wife of Peter 1, who reigned in Cyprus from 1359 to 1369.

According to EU regulations, the bird is listed in Appendix 1, meaning it should have maximum protection levels.

Two white storks were also seen at Buskett and various parts of Malta on Sunday. A black kite was also seen at Buskett on Sunday.

A loophole that makes police work difficult is the fact that during the closed season for birds, one can hunt rabbits and can thus be out with a gun in the countryside. On Sunday afternoons though, hunting is illegal.

Police officers from the administrative law enforcement unit, who at this time of the year are busy carrying out patrols to check contraventions at sea, on August 15 apprehended a hunter on a boat at il-Hofriet, limits of Delimara. The hunter threw his gun into the sea but this was later recovered by a diver and eventually consigned to the police.

Following the incident, the police carried out a search at the man's house and from a deep freezer they confiscated 21 carcases of protected birds. These included skins of a steppe eagle and a white winged lark, probably imported from Egypt, two lesser kestrels, bee-eaters, Montagu's harrier and other birds of prey as well as a number of small birds, including a swallow.

The man is expected to be charged in court shortly.

Another man from Marsascala is also expected to be arraigned after he was found in possession of several live waders in an aviary.