Birdwatchers stumble upon 'cemetery'

Dozens of protected birds were found yesterday in Miżieb in what was described as a bird cemetery.

The remains were found concealed beneath boulders by foreign birdwatchers looking for injured birds after they heard gunshots nearby early in the morning.

The birdwatchers are part of the Committee Against Bird Slaughter, an international organisation which is here on a raptor camp. As soon as they made the find, they called in their local counterparts, BirdLife Malta, and began a random search of the vicinity.

The birdwatchers said some of the birds were probably hidden last season and have completely decomposed. Others were, however, most likely shot yesterday morning.

"Those responsible are not hunters but poachers. They either stashed the birds so they could come back for them later or they disposed of them because they were too badly injured to be stuffed," said an outraged Tolga Temuge, director of BirdLife Malta.

The Miżieb park is managed by the Federation for Hunters, Trappers and Conservationists, which two days ago warned its members it would not tolerate any illegality because it might jeopardise the hobby. It also appealed to similar organisations to take the same approach and not accept anyone whose membership had already been revoked. Yesterday, the federation condemned "any act of illegal hunting" and reiterated its warning that "now more than ever" it will adopt a zero tolerance approach.

But it also seemed to question the veracity of the find. "The Federation for Hunting and Conservation notes the steep escalation of such 'reports' since the September 10 European Court of Justice verdicts... These 'reports' are clearly intended to jeopardise the milestone verdict..."

The verdict it made reference to is a judgment by the European Court which declared illegal the spring hunting seasons allowed by the government between 2004 and 2007.

Searches for more remains continued throughout the day, with the number of discoveries doubling by the afternoon. By 6 p.m. the tally stood at 76 birds.

On the same day, the birdwatchers saw three more protected birds, two ospreys and a kestrel, being shot in Baħrija. They chased the hunter that had shot the kestrel but he fled after dropping his belongings, which were handed over to the police.

Another two birds, a honey buzzard and a heron, were also wounded.

The honey buzzard, which was shot in the wing, was found by a man near the Red Tower in Mellieħa.

The heron's legs were broken and it had been shot in the stomach. It died soon after being shown to reporters.

kbugeja@timesofmalta.com