[WATCH] BirdLife volunteers monitoring for hunting illegalities as spring season opens

BirdLife Malta volunteers will be out in the countryside to monitor for hunting illegalities as the spring hunting season got underway this morning.

The hunting season for quail started today and continues until 30 April while that for turtle doves starts on 17 April and ends on 30 April. The seasonal quotas that can be hunted are 2,400 quails and 1,500 turtle doves.

BirdLife Conservation Manager Nicholas Barbara said on Wednesday that volunteers had spotted hunters out in the countryside who were evidently on the lookout for turtle doves. The hunting for both species is done differently.

While quail hunting involves hunters walking around their fields and using dogs to flush out quail resting on the ground, hunting for turtle doves requires hunters to remain static in their corbelled stone huts.

“Our volunteers this morning have reported seeing hunters waiting in their huts, evidently on the lookout for turtle doves otherwise they would be out walking the fields to flush out quails,” Barbara said.

He was addressing a press conference at the Simar Nature Reserve in Xemxija, a wetland administered by BirdLife, to coincide with the first day of the spring hunting season.

It also came 24 hours after the court refused BirdLife’s request for an injunction to stop the opening of the spring hunting season for turtle dove, which is internationally recognised as a vulnerable species.

BirdLife President Darryl Grima insisted the organisation was not against hunting but “in favour of nature”. He said Malta was the only EU country to request a derogation for hunting in spring.

He said that since 2022, Malta lifted a moratorium on turtle dove hunting requested by a European Commission taskforce that is focussed on the recovery of turtle dove populations.

“In the western European flyway (a migration path) where the moratorium on turtle dove hunting has been respected the recovery of turtle dove populations has been recorded; not the same can be said, however, of the central Mediterranean and eastern flyway where the moratorium has not been respected such as in Malta,” Grima said.

This aspect was given short shrift by the court yesterday when it ruled that the small numbers of turtle doves hunted in Malta hardly have an impact on population size.

But Grima was unfazed by the argument when MaltaToday asked him for his reaction. “Malta’s impact on conservation efforts remains an important factor, especially because hunting is allowed in spring when these birds are migrating towards European nesting grounds. Irrespective of how big or small the impact of Maltese hunting is, we cannot choose when to be part of EU conservation efforts and when not; if every country decided that their impact is small, conservation of migratory species will take a big hit,” he insisted.

Additionally, Grima reiterated that the numbers of turtle doves and quails shot during spring are determined by the reports filed by hunters. Hunters are obliged to report every quail and turtle dove they kill via a mobile application.

Grima insisted: “These figures are false and yet government bases its reasoning for opening the spring hunting season on this compromised data. The season quota is miraculously always achieved on the last day of the hunting season irrespective of weather conditions. This is surreal because everyone knows that hunting on turtle doves takes place even during periods when the season is still closed.”

He insisted that spring hunting was a carte blanche to allow hunters to shoot on a vulnerable species and expressed confidence that ongoing infringement proceedings will eventually end up in front of the European Court of Justice, where BirdLife’s position will be vindicated.

During the press conference journalists were also shown a bird ringing process of a Great Reed Warbler, a migratory species. The bird would have stopped to rest at the Simar Reserve, which provides an ideal habitat for it, as it migrates across the Mediterranean Sea.

Birds are caught using nets and released after a tiny metal ring with identifier data is clipped onto its leg. Ringing allows scientists in different countries to gather information on migratory species.