Monitoring the countryside, at the break of dawn…

BirdLife’s spring watch not only includes Maltese volunteers, but many others joining the hunting season monitors hailing from all over Europe. They’ve come bringing lots of different skills that we need including in-depth bird knowledge, camera skills and a good understanding of the Maltese countryside.

The volunteers have an intensive schedule, getting up before 5:00am to get out to watch points before the sun rises, as this is often the time birds leave their roosts to continue on their long migration.

Likewise just before sunset is the perfect time watch some species: small birds such as Warblers often begin a night of migration at sunset, while others like the Marsh Harriers and Barn Swallows find a spot to rest on the island in the evening.

A Yellow-legged Gull flew over one of our teams this morning with a gunshot injury to the wing #stopspringhunting pic.twitter.com/LS6P00rHNd

— BirdLife Malta (@BirdLife_Malta) April 16, 2014

“One of the volunteers was telling me today how she loves coming on these camps, as for three weeks she gets to watch the sunrise and set each day, which she is unlikely to find the time to do in her everyday life,” says BirdLife’s communications coordinator Rupert Masefield in his blog.

The teams record the daily migration of birds passing over Malta or stopping on the islands. If a large flock is spotted, the teams keep an eye on them, tracking their flight and communicating with local birdwatchers.

On Sunday, a flock of 40 Little egrets was seen by a team flying over the Ghadira reserve, to the delight of the volunteers.

The Spring Watch teams also monitor and deter illegal hunting. “We hope their presence around the countryside helps prevent protected birds being targeted by hunters,” Masefield says.