Rare bird gets treatment abroad for gunshot wounds

Mr R. Abela

May 7th 2011, 12:48

'The bird was found in a Mosta garden last Sunday with injuries to its wing and chest that were a few days old. It was emaciated and unable to fly, BirdLife Malta added'
Every bird injured does not mean is shot by poachers, especially this Pallid Harrier is found in a public garden. I personally have witnessed several accidents where birds hits electrical cables especially when they come to roost at sunset. For those who have some knowledge about birds they know that birds dive at a blink of an eye and this may be the cause of several birds found injured in our countryside. Another accident Where I witnessed of birds being electrode when they came to roost on a difective electricity pole. Our countryside is full of these poles carrying electricity wires, and it's not rare case of birds hittting such cables or being electrode especially on a humid weathers which we have a lot. In America a decrease in number of a rare eagle were these accidents and not poachers. Those who point a finger to others have the rest pointed to him.

MARK MIFSUD BONNICI

May 7th 2011, 11:00

A senseless deplorable act that we condemn without reservations.

However as usual such acts are turned into a means of propaganda against all hunters out legally hunting. According to Paul Debono, Birdlife's executive director, "A PROCESSION OF SHOT PROTECTED BIRDS" amounts to 26 birds recovered by Birdlife.

"conditions which could neither be controlled nor enforced." A statement in line with BLM's aim to undermine the conditions of "strict control" for derogation and subsequently lobby for an end to LEGAL spring hunting.

Rather then coordinating their efforts with legal hunters to stamp out these few instances of abuse, BLM persist in their efforts to portray hunting as being a loop hole for total protection.

Regarding the Pallid Harrier BLM quoted as an "estimated five to 50 breeding pairs of pallid harriers in Europe, excluding the Russian population." ANOTHER BIRDLIFE MALTA EXAGGERATION

The International Conservation Union (IUCN) states:

The global population is estimated at 9,000-15,000 pairs, having shown marked declines and range contractions. The status of the European population (310-1,200 pairs in Azerbaijan, Romania, Turkey, Ukraine and western Russia, occupying 25-49% of the global breeding range) was recently reassessed.

Assessment of the status of this species is complicated by the fact that on breeding territories numbers fluctuate in response to environmental conditions, probably numbers of small mammals. Thus, high or low numbers in any given year or two year period may be indicative of change in demographics or they may be indicative of change in local environment (and birds may go elsewhere without their population size changing)10. Reliable records from migration routes and wintering grounds are also difficult to obtain owing to the rarity of the species, its broad-front migration strategy, and difficulties in field identification, although important concentrations of birds have been identified in parts of India and Africa