Public access to the swans is being denied on the instructions of the Wild Birds Regulation Unit. It is indeed ironic that, of all the wild swans in Europe and elsewhere, Malta’s swans need a police escort and their temporary roost made inaccessible to anyone wanting to enjoy them closely.

It is commonplace for swans to interact and be fed by the public, yet, to the Maltese public this is a rarity; it has now even been officially banned.

This inexplicable official decision comes after the belated involvement of Birdlife Malta, four days after the birds’ appearance in Gozo.

Birdlife Malta now dictates the enjoyment of birds by all and sundry and influences official reactions to such incidents. Judging by the number of people visiting this temporary roost and the countless photos and videos taken of this spectacle, no other event involving birds enjoyed such popularity. Yet, it all has to be denied by extremist protectionism.

Why, given that these birds are perfectly safe, free from stress and totally unconcerned by the presence of the public, does the unit have to endorse and enforce such extremist ways is incomprehensible. We still have a small problem with hunting illegalities but even when this is not the case we have to turn this rare spectacle into a perfect paranoid scenario of “only in Malta” on the “expert” advise of Birdlife Malta.

As for Birdlife’s advice on feeding bread being detrimental or even life-threatening, perhaps what the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds says in this respect might highlight their extremist alarmism: “Many people like feeding bread to swans and, while this is unlikely to do them any real harm in the long term, it is no substitute for the proper diet that the birds themselves will seek out.”

In the short term, being fed bread or any other suitable food is definitely the only reason for the birds remaining here. Had this not been the case they would have definitely died of starvation.