Signs with 'No Entry, Keep Out and Private' we saw plastered in public areas all over Malta on hunters hides where they blast millions of birds from the skies for fun every a year where they have full control of the country!
Anna surprised me with a break to Malta! She did not know that this was a country where they kill millions of birds a year including Swallows, Swifts, Eagles, Storks etc!! Anything that flies through Malta with feathers is a target and risks being blastered out of the sky or trapped by the 9000+ hunters. I wouldn't call them hunters. Lets call them by what they really are. Blood thirsty sick males who get a thrill out of killing living creatures! Over the years I've helped campaign against this slaughter, not just in Malta but also in other Mediterranean countries where they kill anything that moves! When I was a kid, 9 or 10, I watched 'Nature' hosted by Micheal Burk and it showed a French hunter trap a Skylark live to bring it's life to an end by pressing on it's chest with his thumb to stop it breathing. Over the weeks I raised £40 and sent it to the an origination, I can't remember which one, but I remember the leaflet very well with the headline in red 'Slaughter in the Mediterranean' It had a male Blackcap hanging by it's legs from a lime stick. I posted some 100 leaflets to doors in my area where I lived in Trench at the time.
If Anna and I ever do come to Malta again, it will be to volunteer in observing the killers from shooting illegal species of birds. However, I might not be responsible for my actions if I saw one of the little sick men kill a Swallow or an eagle!!
Shooting huts are almost in every field you look with more than one in many of the fields.
While in Malta, I dipped out on Malta's 7th Olive-backed Pipit and a male Mamora's Warbler on the island of Gozo but in the same area I did see Blue Rock Thrush and 5+Speckled Warbler. Of the latter species, the only one I've seen was the Tresco individual back in Oct 2001!
While looking for the OBP in Ta Qali National Park, these delightful male Sardinian Warbler performed well.
Male Spanish Sparrow
In the park they kept Turtle Dove and Spotless Starling in cages!!
The day before I was in the park, the OBP was feeding just to the right of these benches
The tight streets of Senglea are very attractive
To the right of this photo is where we stayed in Senglea
The church at Queralbs
First sighting of the Spanish Pyrenees
These Greater Flamingos were on the River next to the reserve
Up to 4 Marsh Harrier were in air at one time
Long-tailed Tit
Serin are everywhere
White Wagtail
The start of the escapes included this Barnacle with a Greylag Goose
Flock of 100+Common Waxbill in the reeds but kept there distance
And on the waters edge Red-eared Terrapin were in large numbers enjoy the warm sun
Watch an episode of Chris Packham's 'Massacre on Migration' in Malta. In this episode you watch local campers in a public area being turfed off by the police at 06.30 after the hunters complain about them being there! Also, a resident birder who has been shot and hit twice and his farm house was burnt down by these sick males
Ugh, spring migration time soon, when they will line up on whatever turtle doves are left, virtually brought to UK extinction by these jolly folk
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