White storks in line of fire

As the largest flock of white storks ever recorded flew over the island in the past three days, reports of illegal shooting incidents kept pouring in.

A 29-year old woman from Madliena witnessed a shooting on her street, hours before she found a stork lying dead in her garden and drops of blood around her house.

On Wednesday afternoon, at about 6.15 p.m., Emanuela de Giorgio was out and about in her garden when she heard the screeching of car brakes. “And then I suddenly heard shooting outside the garden. They were not normal hunting shots. They seemed to be literally firing machine guns and just wanted to kill whatever they were firing at,” she recounted.

A rain of gun pellets fell into her garden.

Ms de Giorgio started shouting and screaming at the gunmen when she realised they were shooting at a flock of “huge birds”.

“It happened all so fast. The hunters followed the flock of birds and by the time I unlocked the garden gate and got out on the street, there were only two empty-handed men trying to retrieve a dead stork from a building site up the road,” she added.

The bird was held by the neck but Ms de Giorgio could not tell whether it was dead or not.

Her mother saw about three birds being shot down.

“If they weren’t killed, the birds were injured for sure,” Ms de Giorgio said, adding they saw birds being hit in the air while flying.

A woman driving by while the shooting was taking place called the police. Officers from the Administrative Law Enforcement unit and BirdLife Malta representatives arrived on the scene within five minutes, she said.

On Thursday, Ms de Giorgio found a dead stork in her garden and cartridges in three different places in the area.

“The blood was everywhere: in the garden, the car, the drive-in, the road and on walls,” she said.

She said shooting was heard “every so often” in the area. “Yesterday, however, it was scary. It was very loud and seemed as if it would not stop.”

In the meantime, at least one more stork was shot down in the Ta’ Ċenċ area yesterday morning as it flew in a flock of 75 headed from Anchor Bay towards Gozo.

The Times readers also reported shooting at storks in Sannat.

Three men were arrested, police sources said.

Between Wednesday and Thursday at least six storks were seen being shot down and another injured stork was recovered but had to be put down by a vet. Another two storks were recorded in flight with dangling legs and missing feathers.

BirdLife spokesman Geoffrey Saliba said environmental officers from the Malta Environment and Planning Authority and the police had been informed and BirdLife was monitoring the situation.

The shooting was also condemned by the St Hubert’s Hunting Association. It called on the authorities “to ensure that offenders of serious wildlife crimes are not let off lightly but serve to set the example for the few remaining irresponsible individuals that should have never been issued with a hunting licence.”