Breeding confusion on bird issues

It is a shame that certain contributors who are quite well-versed in birding issues continue to make allegations that only help to confuse the minds of readers.

Richard Cachia Zammit's letter does purely that (Birds Still Manage To Breed, August 1).

What the readers have to understand is that whenever one refers to birds breeding in any country, one is looking at a colony or at least a reasonable number that is of scientific significance. A pair, or two or three, is surely an exception.

Are we trying to make the exception the rule?

Mr Cachia Zammit says certain "birds manage to breed notwithstanding the yearly persecution".

I will have to take Mr Cachia Zammit a bit back in time, even to an era when neither of us was present and where rules and regulations were not necessarily written with a conservation concept in mind.

Does Malta's history record turtle doves breeding or song-bird breeding at a time when Malta enjoyed a considerably greater percentage of countryside, much less light and sound pollution and no shotguns?

Let us call a spade a spade and at least argue on issues that really merit some effort.