Three hunters prowling the rocky outcrop behind the former Jerma Hotel in Marsascala were yesterday caught by the police after shooting a protected bird.

The incident was witnessed and reported to the police by a Birdlife member, who noted that the hunters had also used illegal electronic lures.

“The police were quick to arrive on the scene and they also recovered the dead Shelduck,” the birdwatcher told Times of Malta.

The Shelduck is a protected species. It is a big, colourful duck, characterised by a dark green head and neck, a chestnut belly stripe and a red bill. It winters around the Mediterranean and is a scarce migrant over Malta.

The police were quick to arrive on the scene

The hunters had stashed the duck away among the rocks but the police found it after being directed to the site by the birdwatcher.

The incident came hot on the heels of a proposal by the government’s Wild Birds Regulation Unit in front of the Ornis Committee for an amnesty on stuffed birds and very high fines for illegal hunting.

A recent report in Times of Malta also pointed out that one of the first tasks of the government’s hunting adviser Albert Pace, a licensed trapper and hunter who was convicted for using illegal electronic bird lures in 2009, was to advise on the revision of regulations that resulted in the decriminalisation of the use of electronic bird callers.