Birdwatchers welcome flock of 20 white storks

A flock of 20 White Storks (Ċikonja Bajda) and the first migratory raptors have been seen by local birdwatchers this season, BirdLife said.

It said in a statement that Europe’s birds have once again started to leave their breeding grounds ahead of the winter months, moving towards their African wintering grounds.

As an island on the central migratory route, Malta is an important stepping stone for many birds as they cross over the Mediterranean.

These include large numbers of birds of prey, whose migration peaks between September and early October.

During this period, large numbers of raptors arrive in Malta in the late afternoon, where they fly low searching for suitable safe roost sites to spend the night.

They gather in areas such as the Buskett Bird Sanctuary and Mizieb and on good days can number in the hundreds, offering observers spectacular views.

Ring recoveries have shown that raptor species such as Ospreys (Arpa) come to Malta from as far away as Sweden, Finland and Germany, and the Marsh Harrier (Bagħdan Aħmar), a common migrant in Malta, shown to come from eight European countries including Finland, Latvia, Poland and the Czech Republic.

BirdLife Malta has invited international guests to join its annual raptor camp coinciding with the peak raptor migration.

As part of this camp, which will run from September 11 to 26, volunteers will record data on migrating birds and report illegalities to the police, gathering photo and video evidence to help with their investigations.

The Raptor Camp will welcome volunteers from seven countries in Europe, all being countries which birds migrating over Malta come from.

Migration also coincides with the start of the autumn hunting season, which is open for five months as from today for 32 species of wild migratory birds.

Between September 15 and 30 hunting may not take place after 3 p.m. to protect migrating raptors, which at that time are flying low over Malta searching for a roost site and are therefore particularly vulnerable to illegal hunters, BirdLife said.