Spring hunting defence (2)

The case regarding the ban on the spring shooting of turtle doves and quail seems to hinge on the argument that Maltese shooters do have an alternative to this type of hunting and the solution would be to shoot these birds on their return flight to their winter quarters in autumn.

Any ornithologist worth his salt should know that spring migration is more intense and direct since migrating birds are, at this time, anxious to secure the best territories in which they can breed and raise their fledglings.

For the autumn return migration the opposite applies, and instead of taking the most direct route which, incidentally, is not over the Maltese islands, they return by different routes and leave the breeding quarters at different times.

The foremost Maltese ornithologists, Joe Sultana and Charles Gauci, have this to say in their New Guide to the Birds in Malta, page 94, with regard to the migration of turtle doves as opposed to the spring migration: "... in autumn it (the turtle dove) passes in much smaller numbers... ".

For these reasons the autumn bird shooting can never replace the spring bird shooting where turtle doves and quail are concerned.

Since ornithologists worth their salt seem to be thin on the ground in Brussels, may I suggest that, should the Commission "experts" decide to return to Malta in the coming autumn, they be accompanied by an equal number of representatives from the Federation of Field Sport Associations of the European Union - FACE (formerly the Federation of Hunting Associations in Europe).

In this way no one from either camp would be tempted to cook the books.