Last Tuesday I went on what was supposedly a beautiful ramble in January’s balmy weather; instead, my marvelling turned to utter disgust and I feel rather furious!

Around 4pm some youths positioned themselves strategically between a number of trees and for the next hour or so it seemed like an early morning during the last week in April when a scirocco is blowing and the hunters are having a field day. Only today I discovered that the shots were aimed at tiny birds, mainly meadow pipit (psiepes), sparrows and whatever flew their way. The poor birds were trying to find a place in the trees to roost for the night and although tiny they made easy targets. This took place just under the old Fort Campbell at Selmun Point. This sort of barbaric behaviour is what is putting in jeopardy the pastime of many law-abiding hunters.

I am a hunter myself and although I gave up the pastime in Malta, I occasionally go for game offering a challenge, flushing woodcock in Ireland.

When an offending shooter breaks the law he is announcing his crime around for miles and it will not go amiss for someone with authority to keep an eye on the area as it seems that these shooters frequent it regularly.

Unfortunately one has to experience something horrid like this by going in the countryside to make one realise that the only way to stop them is to ban shooting altogether, except one week in spring and one week in autumn.