The news item Birdlife Says Illegal Hunting Incidents Have Doubled (October 17) makes very interesting reading.

During the hunting season, between September 1 and October 13, BirdLife fieldworkers recorded a total of 626 general illegal hunting incidents. That is equivalent to an average of 15 incidents per day. We would expect BLM to indicate how many of these "incidents" took place in the same location, how many of them were reported to the police, whether the same rogue hunters were involved, and how many offenders were taken to court on the testimony of BLM fieldworkers.

According to BLM's director the number of reports of shot protected birds between August 15 and October 13 2008 totalled 55. Therefore, we ask, where are those hundreds, even thousands, of protected birds that BLM always maintain that Maltese hunters allegedly shoot? Furthermore, if one were to assume that 55 shot protected birds equals 55 rogue hunters, that would amount to 0.4 per cent of all registered hunters (based on 14,000). Therefore, how can BirdLife Malta justify their declarations in the media that the majority shoot protected birds?

Another revelation is the statement that there is a "massive presence" of BirdLife volunteer birdwatchers in the countryside during the (Raptor) camps. Surely then there is no justification for BirdLife Malta's campaign to reclaim the countryside from Maltese hunters. If BLM manage to have a massive presence in the countryside even during the hunting season, is their agitation against the hunters justified? Why are they always trying to turn the public against the hunters by declaring that the countryside has been completely taken over for hunting?

BirdLife include black storks along with marsh-harriers and buzzards among "the most commonly targeted protected species". Yet BLM itself acknowledges that the black stork is a rare vagrant over Malta. Therefore, is BLM justified in giving the impression that the Black Stork is a most commonly targeted protected species?

It is evident that this latest report by BirdLife Malta, as other reports before it, is important for what it inadvertently reveals. The nation waits for BLM's next report with bated breath.