Blurry-eyed Birdlife volunteers sip their coffees before the crack of dawn as they wait for instructions on where they will be stationed that morning.

Clutching binoculars and video cameras, this hardy flock of conservationists and birdwatchers blink away their tiredness; eager to get out in the field to witness the possible departure of roosting birds of prey.

Like the creatures they have come to watch, many of the volunteers have journeyed south from elsewhere in Europe, enticed by the task of deterring illegal hunting during the peak weeks of the autumn migration season.

Young and old, Maltese and foreign, this unlikely crew of wildlife crime-stoppers appears as varied as the avian spectacle in the sky when the conditions are favourable at this time of year.

Youngsters hear stories from their fathers and want to emulate them

The Sunday Times of Malta is dispatched to Tal-Virtù, overlooking an area where honey buzzards had roosted the night before.

Already waiting at the “watch point” are three British volunteers and a German under the slate grey sky.

The air is damp and the wind whistles through the trees below – far from ideal weather for spotting raptors, by all accounts.

With the swirling wind making flight difficult, Birdlife’s communications officer Rupert Masefield explains that roosting birds of prey may opt to stay another night on the island before continuing their journey to their wintering grounds in Africa.

The first three shots echo through the valley at 6.20am.

Ten minutes later, two juvenile honey buzzards are spotted, prompting a flurry activity among the volunteers as they document the sightings and train their lenses on the birds.

Mr Masefield explains that for each sighting, the time, species, “activity”, flight direction and height are logged to gauge the strength of the migration season. The number of gunshots each hour is also recorded.

“There have been more shots than birds so far this year,” said a wry Steve Miller, a 52-year-old Brit.

On the second day of this year’s Raptor Camp (September 16), Mr Miller witnessed two honey buzzards being shot down at Il-Bidni in the south of the island.

While he waited for the police to arrive, a hunter in the area was observed collecting the bird and taking it away. By the time the authorities were onsite they were unable to locate it, despite interviewing several suspects.

In the interludes between birding, the volunteers scour the countryside for suspicious activity, such as twitchy hunters or illegal trapping sites.

But the only hunters in view seem to be as languid as the birds that morning, as they sip from flasks in their hides.

“We can’t presume the hunters are up to no good,” said Caroline Rance, a 29-year-old Scot.

“They do have a legal right to be in the countryside. We are not anti-hunting, we are anti-illegal hunting.”

Ms Rance gave up a job working as an osprey warden at Scotland’s idyllic Loch Leven to work for Birdlife in Malta.

She was motivated to do this because she was concerned that all the time and effort she put in to protecting ospreys and educating the public in Scotland could be wasted if they were shot in the Mediterranean during their annual migration.

By 8.37am, when the volunteers decide it is time for breakfast, 125 migrating birds have been counted as well as 40 shots.

Of these, several volleys from illegal modified shotguns were noted, as was a honey buzzard with a shotgun injury to its leg. No police were observed in the area.

The next day, The Sunday Times of Malta joins another Raptor Camp team at a blustery Laferla Cross for the afternoon shift.

Alongside a retired librarian from Bedfordshire and a middle-aged birder from Birmingham are Maltese siblings Martin and Anne-Marie Austad, aged 20 and 18 respectively.

The nature-loving brother and sister co-ordinate Birdlife’s Falko youth activities and spend as much time as possible in the countryside, where they are some-times threatened by hunters averse to their presence.

Although they believe education efforts have made Maltese youth more aware of bird conservation issues, they shake their heads glumly when asked if illegal hunting was non-existent among their generation.

“If anything, the young ones are worse. They hear stories from their fathers and they want to emulate them. Plus there is a thrill to doing something illegal,” they say.

The squally conditions mean there is little bird watching to be done that day, but the Austads are keen to stay in the field.

They explain that two years ago they observed a flock of 20 white storks during a howling autumn wind.

“Bird watching is full of surprises,” says Mr Austad, with a knowing look.

Illegal hunting will be the main topicof discussion in Times Talk, the newprogramme presented by Times of Malta on TVM every Tuesday at 6.55pm.