A birdwatcher takes note of the birds of prey that were left at a bird camp observation post!

by Natalino Fenech

Birdwatchers had an unpleasant surprise yesterday on the last day of their raptor camp: Cow dung and three dead birds of prey, placed symmetrically in the area from where they had been spotting illegal hunting over the past two weeks.
The birdwatchers, who form part of BirdLife Malta's team and including several foreigners, made the discovery at about 2 p.m. when they returned to Nadur Tower, in Dwejra, where they had been going on a daily basis since the beginning of the camp.
A few days earlier, broken glass had been scattered all round the tower but nothing prepared them for yesterday's find, which included a dead honey buzzard, a marsh harrier and a lesser kestrel, a particularly threatened species.
The birds had visible gunshot wounds but while the marsh harrier and the lesser kestrel looked like fresh kills, the BirdLife team said it noticed that the honey buzzard was cold, probably due to being frozen after it had been shot.
"Throughout the week we had hunters stop by in pick-up trucks, hurling some insults and that sort of thing," BLM conservation manager Andrè Raine said shortly after having found the birds, "but nothing like this... this is pathetic. It gives us a clear idea of the cowardly nature of the people behind these criminal acts."
The incident was the last in a series of episodes highlighting the excesses of illegal hunting over the past weeks. The Committee Against Bird Slaughter (Cabs) on Saturday showed footage of a booted eagle being shot down over Dwejra. The police and soldiers held four people on the same day and impounded their boat on suspicion of illegal hunting.
The suspect boat was intercepted by the army about 25 nautical miles north of Gozo, just in time for the soldiers to witness those on board dumping things overboard. A search of the craft revealed ammunition, blood and feathers.
Commenting on yesterday's incident, BLM executive director Tolga Temuge insisted that the administration of the hunters lobby (FKNK) cannot continue to ignore the scale of illegal hunting and instead target foreign birdwatchers through xenophobic statements.
When contacted, FKNK secretary Lino Farrugia dismissed the Nadur Tower incident as a propaganda stunt. "It's impossible that every illegally-shot bird ends up in the hands of these people. I've been hunting for 40 years and I've never been given any such birds after they've been shot. It's just impossible."
When pressed on this point, given that the lobby had accepted similar accusations last May, when BirdLife invited the hunters at its office to show them a live raptor that had been shot, Mr Farrugia insisted there was "no proof that it had been shot by hunters. If they have been shot by hunters we condemn them as we have in the past."