Protected waders were being regularly trapped from several locations over the past two months, BirdLife said.

It said in a statement that its fieldworkers filmed two active illegal trapping sites last weekend and passed the footage on to the Administrative Law Enforcement.

This showed two trappers in one of the illegal wader trapping sites with nets and decoy birds in an artificial pool. An illegal electronic tape lure is heard in the background.

BirdLife Malta said that in July it had reported a number of sites where protected waders were being illegally trapped to the police. Follow up reports were made as illegal trapping at all of the sites continued.

Illegal wader trappers, Birdlife said, were active from mid-summer during the peak wader migration period. This was also the season when the ALE, which had less than 30 officers and a handful of vehicles, were busy with other duties such as beach patrols and plugging the gaps in the police force.

Birdlife said that almost six weeks after its initial reports to the police, an investigation carried out by the ALE resulted in the confiscation of 39 protected species from a person in Mtahleb.

“The latest police investigation shows that even a single illegal trapper can take large numbers of protected birds. Lack of resources available to the ALE to combat wildlife crimes in the summer months, coupled with the fact that there is no wildlife crime unit in Malta, gives illegal trappers a free hand to catch the protected waders during their peak migration period.” Geoffrey Saliba, BirdLife Malta campaigns coordinator said.

The government recently announced that the only species that can be trapped this year are turtle doves and quail between September 1 and October 30 and song thrushes and golden plovers between October 20 and January 10. The golden plover is the only wader species permitted to be trapped during this period and its peak migration period is in November and December.

BirdLife reiterated its demand that a wildlife crime unit should be established to operate year round. It would be reinforced by the ALE during peak migration periods.