Unknown persons have turned an empty water reservoir at Ta´ Qali into a giant bird trap, the Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) said today.

CABS volunteers  discovered the site Saturday afternoon when they followed the calls of an illegal bird caller imitating the songs of protected bird species. The search led to a deep basin covering an area of 40x20 metres. On the bottom of the reservoir trappers had set up five vertical mist nets and several plastic bird decoys around a puddle of water.

“The whole structure has been transformed into a massive underground trap which was exclusively designed to attract and catch protected birds out of the sight of the police”, CABS Wildlife Crime Officer Fiona Burrows said in a statement. ALE officers were alerted and climbed down into the 10 metre-deep basin to remove the nets and electronic bird caller. Investigations to reveal the identity of the poachers and the owner of the reservoir are ongoing.

CABS said the Ta' Qai find  was only one out of 10 illegal bird trapping sites  found by CABS and dismantled by the police in the last eight days.

“These installations pose a huge threat to birds, and often other wildlife such as hedgehogs and snakes become entangled and die”, Ms Burrows said. "In previous years there have been much fewer sites detected. This increase in trapping sites for waders demonstrates a worrying upward trend in illegal trapping in a country where some of these species are trying to breed".

Active clap nets and illegal bird callers as well as numerous live protected birds were confiscated in Kirkop, Bingemma, Ghaxaq, Zabbar, Marsaskala, Hal-Far, L-Ahrax and Zejtun.

CABS said the police had confirmed that at least five  persons would be charged in connection with the finds. 11 live protected birds, among them four Little Ringed Plovers, 3 Common Sandpipers, 3 Green Sandpipers and 1 Wood Sandpiper have been released in the Ghadira nature reserve last Thursday. One Green Sandpiper died before it could be released.