They shoot birds – don’t they?

The cold fresh air of a spring morning opened up my lungs with a prickling sensation. I stood in awe at the unadulterated beauty of the coastline. A spring green mantle covered the fields that ran right to the cliff edge. I was standing on a purpose built viewing platform precariously over the edge of the cliff with the sea glistening below me.

As far as I could see to the north or south was pristine countryside. An English couple that had risen at 4 a.m. to drive to the same spot – to shoot birds – joined me. We chatted and then were joined by another woman.

We chatted too and she asked me “Where are you from?”

An insistent question that pole axed me. As a travel writer, I extol my love of Malta and its heritage wherever I go in the world, encouraging and extolling them to visit. However, this time I hesitated for a moment, bit the bullet and said “Malta”. Now often I have to explain where Malta is but this time I knew I would not need to.

She looked me steely in the eyes, hesitated too and then decided to tell the truth. “You shoot birds there”.

It was a statement that all around heard and they pricked up their ears. I tried to explain that things had improved since our accession into the EU and that there was a groundswell against the assassins of the skies. I know it was a losing battle and that the perception and knowledge was there too large for me to stem the tide.

Volunteer Linda Mc Kenzie is known as the Gannett Lady of Bempton Cliffs in East Yorkshire. Two days a week, rain or shine, she stands on that wooden promontory extolling her love of the birds that return year after year to the same craggy rock. The Bempton Cliffs RSPB reserve is world-renowned. Visitors flock from worldwide – over 75,000 per year to witness the wonder. The puffins and gannets were returning in spring to the same nests as the year before. Gannet mate and pair for life – a long one of 20 years – and are then gone when the chicks have flegged in summer. Check out www.isaimages.com for some stunning birdshots – not with a gun but with a photo lens longer than my arm and worth a fortune.

See www.rspb.org.uk/bemptoncliffs too. The sanctuary has a welcome centre, a gift shop and a case full of telescopes, binoculars and cameras. And a café too. This is big business in a way and the tourism that Malta so dearly needs.

It reminded me of the young German couple I met in Thailand that indeed took me up on a holiday to Malta. They decided to stay in Eco Gozo, as they were green and vegetarians too. I met for lunch at the end of their holiday and asked “How was it?” The haunted look on their faces said it all. Each morning the barrage of gunshots had woken them and haunted them until they went to bed. They did not sleep well and vowed never to return but most of all to tell their friends the horror of it all.

Gonzi PN, Mario de Marco and George Pullicino, are you listening?

Are the people of the Maltese islands listening?

It should be a dawn chorus we hear but we hear nothing.

Is it not time for us to have our own spring uprising?

To stand shoulder to shoulder along Dingli and Ta’ Ċenċ cliffs in silence, in awe of the beauty about us?

To show the twittering political parties that votes do come in the colour green.