First migrating protected birds reported shot

Some of this autumn's first migrating birds have already been shot at and killed by illegal hunters in four different locations around Malta over the past two days, BirdLife Malta said.

Yesterday, it said, a member of the public reported seeing an early migrating Marsh Harrier being shot three times by a man at Zonqor Point in Marsascala.

The man was then seen collecting the shot bird, one of the first seen this season, and walking off with it.

A migrating Night Heron photographed in Is-Simar wetland Nature Reserve this weekend. Photo by Ray Galea

This morning, a member of the public reported shots were fired at a flock of herons in Marsascala.

Later in the day another report of herons being shot at was reported to BirdLife, this time from Qawra Point just next to a popular bathing spot.

In the afternoon, the environment NGO received a Night Heron that had evidently been hit by shotgun pellets, leaving a hole in its left wing.

"The injured heron was immediately taken to a vet, but the wound was so severe that it had to be put down," BirdLife said. 

BirdLife Malta conservation manager Nicholas Barbara noted the incidents occurred just days after the government announced a four hour roll back of the curfew on hunting during afternoons during the peak migration period in September. 

"No sooner do migrating birds appear over Malta than they are shot at, proving that more controls to prevent illegal shooting of birds are required, not less," Barbara said.