Malta Springwatch to include 50 international volunteers

Spring Watch, BirdLife Malta's international conservation camp, kicks off tomorrow with 50 international participants joining Maltese birdwatchers to monitor spring migration of wild birds from Africa to their breeding grounds in Europe.

The international participants include professional ornithologists and bird watchers as well as writers, artists and filmmakers coming from Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, France, Poland, the UK and Ireland.

As well as recording observations of migrating birds for use in scientific studies, BirdLife teams will also monitor the spring hunting derogation, recording and reporting illegalities to assist the police in their efforts to enforce the conditions of the derogation.

The organisation said that in the past two years, the occurrence of illegal hunting incidents in spring increased concurrently with the reintroduction of spring hunting .