Charlot Zahra
As the autumn hunting season continued in earnest, hunters continued to flout the law shamelessly, shooting on protected birds of prey on Friday and violating the 3pm curfew.
Eyewitnesses said several protected birds were shot and electronic messages between birdwatchers reported; “At 2.30 pm we heard about 12 shots on Honey Buzzards as these birds were already going down to find a roosting place.
“A few minutes later, 2 ALE (Administrative Law Enforcement) police officers came to show us a shot and injured Honey Buzzard which they saw being shot down, and managed to find the bird but unfortunately they didn't catch the hunter,” the eyewitnesses told MaltaToday.
The shooting spree on protected species by hunters in full defiance of the law continued well after 3pm, leading a lot of the hapless raptor birds to roost outside the Buskett natural reserve as a last resort.
Friday had been a great day for Birdlife bird watchers and the CABS mission to Malta as they sighted hundreds of birds of prey, with peak migration between 1pm and 3pm, when birds started to appear in good numbers, “mainly coming from North to South direction.
“Then most of the birds of prey started circling over a large area and started to go down and roost -- as sky went overcast and darkened -- and we had to stop counting at about 4 pm as it was very difficult to count new birds.
“At one instance we counted around 300 birds of prey in several flocks in the Buskett, Virtù, Girgenti, Laferla, and Dingli area,” the eyewitnesses reported.
Two days earlier, on Thursday, unidentified vandals threw used engine oil at the Nadur Tower, limits of Rabat. This is one of the prime birding sites in Malta and the hands of hunters was not being excluded.

czahra@mediatoday.com.mt