The Committee Against Bird Slaughter yesterday reported more than 300 shots in Delimara while the situation was all quiet in the north.

Despite a large police and conservationist presence, hunters on the Delimara peninsula fired over 300 shots at turtle doves and raptors, Cabs claimed.

The shots, they said, came mainly from the Ta' Lombardi valley and the Ta' Ngraw area to its rear and Cabs president Heinz Schwarze believed "several dozen" people were responsible. He said he witnessed the "massacre" from Tal-Munxar with one of his teams.

The committee said it documented the illegal shooting on video but did not manage to get footage of a poacher carrying a weapon.

Mr Schwarze claimed the shooters were aware they were under observation and hid behind walls and small clumps of trees.

According to bird guard Leonardo Petrelli from Catania, they had lookout posts equipped with mobile phones, or walkie-talkies, passing on the position of the Cabs teams and the police to the poachers in the valley.

"What we saw this morning was organised crime at its best," Mr Petrelli said.

Another Cabs team, deployed in the Selmun Palace area yesterday morning, reported all quiet in the north, apart from five shots.

Alternattiva Demokratika Żgħażagħ condemned the recent attacks on BirdLife members and Cabs activists.