‘Massacre on migration’ – English naturalist documents spring hunting [WATCH]

“For many years I have lobbied the UK’s bird charities to campaign to raise awareness about the slaughter of migrant birds on Malta… Well, I’ve finally run out of patience,” says English naturalist and TV presenter Chris Packham, who is in Malta on an entirely self-funded independent project to document the Maltese hunting season.

Together with three colleagues and the support of Birdlife Malta, Packham is broadcasting a video diary of the days’ events on the island during the spring hunting season.

Chris Packham told the BBC that rare species were being targeted, and hunters were even shooting Montagu's harrier birds on the ground at night. "It's a desperate situation," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme (LISTEN).

A Maltese wildlife official, Seregi Golvkin from the Wild Birds Regulation Unit, insisted that patrols to stop illegal hunting had been stepped up. He said enforcement of the restrictions had "improved dramatically in the last few years". Malta has "the highest ratio in Europe" of enforcement staff deployed against illegal hunting, he told the BBC.

"Yesterday I'm afraid to say I had a dead swift in my hand that had been illegally shot and also a dead little bittern," Packham told the BBC.

Thirty-three MEPs have jointly lobbied the European Commission to put pressure on Malta over the hunting exemption. A British Liberal Democrat MEP, Catherine Bearder, says the EU must "stop Malta from breaking EU rules, by systematically failing to apply the derogation correctly".

“While the large majority of Maltese people oppose spring hunting and want to see migrating birds properly protected, successive Maltese governments have failed to bring illegal bird killing under control and refused to stop unsustainable hunting in spring,” Packham said.

“Stopping spring hunting would be a huge step towards making Malta safe for Europe’s migrating birds and would even help the chances of birds which try to breed on the islands.”

There is new hope amongst Maltese conservationists that this might be the last year Malta opens a spring hunting season. A petition presented to Malta’s Electoral Commission last week and signed by more than 44,000 Maltese voters, calls for a public referendum to stop spring hunting in Malta by taking the decision away from politicians putting in directly in the hands of the Maltese people.