It has been a very bad spring hunting season for turtle dove and quail as the unfavourable winds kept the birds away, according to Danny Rosso.

The accountant says the weather was favourable for birds of prey and other protected birds – and hunters saw thousands of them throughout the open season that ended on Wednesday.

Mr Rosso is vice president of St Hubert Hunters, a small hunting organisation, and his quiet demeanour belies the mainstream perception of hunters being a bunch of troglodytes.

It is a perception that bothers him and one he partially blames on how the mainstream media, including Times of Malta, report instances of illegal hunting.

“The hunting community is collectively blamed for the illegal activity of the very few,” he says, adding this is unfair on those who observe the law to the letter.

“There are accountants who commit crimes, lawyers, priests and even members of the judiciary, but should these categories be collectively punished because of the very few bad apples?”

He argues the media gives maximum coverage to the “deceitful propaganda” disseminated by Birdlife, a conservation group, and others.

The negative propaganda Malta receives is not proportional to the fact that we capture the lowest numbers of turtle dove and quail in Europe

“It is simply untrue that millions of game birds are killed over Malta as is the case in other European countries and the perception of a free-for-all built on incorrect information tarnishes the country’s reputation,” he says.

Mr Rosso believes the negative publicity abroad generated by the likes of BBC presenter and naturalist Chris Packham should be rebuked as much as any incident of illegal hunting.

“The negative propaganda Malta receives is not proportional to the fact that we capture the lowest numbers of turtle dove and quail in Europe,” he says.

We are seated in the living room at the house of Mark Mifsud Bonnici, president of St Hubert Hunters. Four hunters claim to have shot four birds between them in the 19-day spring hunting season.

Like previous years, hunters were allowed to shoot a maximum of 11,000 turtle doves and 5,000 quails, with a daily individual bag limit of two birds and a seasonal individual limit of four.

For Mr Mifsud Bonnici it is “inconceivable” to argue that the turtle dove population in the UK has dropped because of Maltese hunters as Mr Packham stated in one of his videos “presumably documenting the shooting of millions of migratory birds” during the 2014 spring hunting season.

“Portugal, France and Spain are on the UK’s doorstep and allow the hunting of millions of turtle doves every year and yet they are not considered as part of the blame for the UK decline,” he says.

Mr Mifsud Bonnici is angry and highly critical over what he insists is deliberate misinformation by people like Mr Packham and local personalities.

Mr Mifsud Bonnici gives an example of what he says is an exaggeration.

In a recent comment to this newspaper, Birdlife conservation manager Nicholas Barbara claimed to have recorded more than 800 shots in fewer than two hours of observations at Delimara.

“It’s obviously a lie,” Mr Mifsud Bonnici says, producing his personal record sheet of shots he heard in the Bidnija area where he has his hide.

Throughout the whole season, he claims to have recorded 629 shots within a three-kilometre range – the distance over which a shot is audible.

The record sheet forms part of the hunting organisation’s efforts to document the migration of turtle dove and quail and the activity of hunters.

Covering some 30 to 40 locations across the island, members are asked to record the number of turtle dove and quail seen, the shots they fire and shots heard.

The hunters also record the number of birds within a 50-metre zone, which represents the shooting range.

“This gives us an idea of the potential number of birds that could have been shot, the actual number killed and the size of migration. It is important to understand that not every shot represents a kill.”

He shows the sheets belonging to a couple of hunters, indicating a very poor migratory season.

David Borg Cardona, the organisation’s secretary, interjects: “The weather brought a lot of birds of prey and other protected birds instead and they were untouched.

“We took photos of these birds and we will present them to the European Commission as proof of what we witness.”

The obvious question crops up. With the authorities relying on hunters to report killed birds by SMS, the kill pattern over the past few years has shown a spike towards the end of the season, leading some to believe that hunters underreport on most days to avoid having the season closed early.

But Mr Mifsud Bonnici shakes his head. “That can easily be explained because the season for turtle doves peaks after April 25 and this is why we would like the spring hunting season extended until May 10.”

He also argues that the quotas for birds killed are far below the scientifically accepted benchmark of one per cent of the bird population’s mortality rate.

Hunters have insisted that according to available scientific data they should be allowed to shoot a maximum of 120,000 quails and 72,000 turtle doves. Across Europe, some eight million quails and turtle doves are hunted every year in autumn.

But hunters have gone from arguing their case to loosen the restrictions imposed on the spring hunting season to defending what they have as a result of the initiative by a coalition of green groups to call an abrogative referendum.

Mr Mifsud Bonnici says the referendum is being used to deny a minority its right to enjoy its hobby in a legal way.

“What happens if somebody who dislikes racing pigeons or fireworks collects 40,000 signatures to ban these pastimes?”

Nyal Xuereb, a committee member, is concerned that people will make an uninformed choice. There are 22 million pairs of turtle doves in Europe, he says, adding this contradicted the arguments made by personalities like Mr Packham.

But Mr Rosso insists people took a decision on the hunting issue in a referendum 11 years ago when they voted for EU membership.

“When people voted then, they knew the package included a guarantee by then Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami and today’s Opposition leader Simon Busuttil – at the time head of the EU information centre – that hunting rights will not be touched,” he says.

ksansone@timesofmalta.com