Another two “hunters” were photographed inside a protected area on Thursday.

Birdlife Malta said it photographed the “hunters” in a protective buffer zone at the Għadira Nature Reserve, adding that it immediately informed the police Administrative Law Enforcement Unit.

Police sources said officers had searched the area but the men had left by the time they reached the reserve.

The conservationists said the buffer zone around the wetland reserve extended beyond the sanctuary to prevent hunters from targeting birds in the reserve.

A Birdlife spokesman said the incident occurred at about 1pm. Other infringements in previous weeks had taken place at similar times.

He called for a change to law enforcement shift rotations because hunters were capitalising on an unsupervised window of about 45 minutes in the afternoon.