Growing up I only thought there were two kinds of wild birds; sparrows and pigeons. I also remember this one little song we used to have at school called L-Għanja tal-Pitirross (the robin’s song) by Trevor Zahra, and yet, back then, I had no idea what a live robin looked like.

The other birds I remember growing up were my pet budgie Chippie and those stuffed ones behind cold glass showcases at my neighbour's house. I had no idea what kaċċa (bird hunting) was and I genuinely thought those birds were either plastic ones or imported specimens, specifically brought over to exhibit their beauty. I had no clue they were mere trophies. Naive I know, but I was also five years old, so let's cut me some slack.

Years went by and I remember large chest freezers stuffed with quails and other birds at my neighbour's house. I remember large cabinets with different guns and I also remember one glorious, dead, sad flamingo. Then I remember the disgust. The realisation that these birds were flying around Malta and now were in my neighbour’s living room enraged me. ‘Not fair’ was what I would say to my father when he tried to explain our neighbour’s hobby to me. Since then I have been against hunting.

Fast forward 20 years and it was the day of the referendum. Going to vote on Saturday I almost felt smug; finally there will be no more hunting in spring. Birds passing through our little island will have shelter and won’t need to fear for their lives as they are flying to cooler countries to breed. With the six point poll difference showing a win for the No camp I thought this was in the bag. To that day it didn’t even occur to me that the Yes vote might win. Another bout of naivety and this time I’m all to blame because I’m not 10 years old any more.

Many have tried arguing who is to blame for all this but finding the culprit won’t do any good now. We can all blame the Shout campaign for having a disorganised, reactive campaign using pseudo famous people delivering what was sometimes the wrong message.

We can blame the government for deliberately confusing the issue with the way that the referendum question was worded. We can all blame Joseph Muscat for pandering to the Yes vote because let’s face it, the only conservation he really cares about is his seat as Prime Minister after the next election. We can all blame Simon Busuttil for acting cowardly and staying in the shadows. We can blame Gozo, we can blame those who didn’t go out to vote, we can even blame the media but the person we should all be blaming is ourselves and our complacency.

I am very much guilty of this too. It's easy to retweet, repost Facebook statuses and share links on social media thinking we're making a difference and that we're part of some movement. We've been so infected by misleading marketing campaigns masked as activist movements of the likes of Finding Kony and Malta Taghna Lkoll, that we forget that in the real world we have to work and work hard to get results.

Much as I hope that this experience will be a lesson learnt to whoever petitions for a referendum in the future, it is too late for the birds. Years will pass before anyone has the courage to challenge the kaccaturi again and now we are condemned to watch them rampage over the countryside killing anything that flies and threatening law-abiding citizens that simply want to enjoy the countryside and watch birds, alive and flying freely in all their natural beauty instead of stuffed and dusty in a glass display case.