The video footage above, taken yesterday in the Burmarrad/Mosta countryside, often termed as a notorious area for hunting illegalities, shows how hunters held fire as over a hundred birds of prey and other migratory birds flew over, the St Hubert Hunters Association said.
It said that the unusual inclement weather for this time of year offered a memorable scene. Within minutes of daybreak numerous harriers, mostly Marsh and Montagu's Harriers, were seen alighting, flying low and then grouping in search of thermals. Three lesser kestrels, eight common kestrels, a buzzard, an Eleonora's falcon and a Peregrine Falcon were observed in less than four hours.
"The sight of Harriers scouring the fields of wheat and clover in search of prey was indeed a joy for all to watch," Mark Mifsud Bonnici said.
The morning also brought a large influx of Bee-eaters awaiting the mist to clear to carry on with their northward journey. A solitary cuckoo spent a good part of the morning gracing us with its distinctive call and its hawk-like flight.
"All this happened in the proximity of over 100 hunters, and not a shot was to be heard in the area save for seven on the only turtle dove seen, and it survived to tell the tale".
It was only a looming dark sky and a downpour of rain that cleared the Maltese countryside of such marvellous birds, and certainly not the hunters, he said.
A team of bird observers strategically located within the area supposedly to witness such sights do not report such occurrences, but they only strive to document the lone hunter not wearing the compulsory armband or an illegal night time shooting incident that unfortunately failed to see anyone arrested he said.
"The same observers emphasize the killing of 13 recovered protected birds, but keep silent about the fact that the vast majority of the 6,000 licensed spring hunters fully observe the regulations. We consider even one protected bird killed as being one too many, but equally condemn those who thrive on portraying a picture of gloom and doom for Malta's birds when the reality is quite the contrary. The undisturbed birds in this video, one of many filmed today, unquestionably settle any doubts."
(Footage by Kaccaturi San Umbertu)