Your reporter Nikki Abela Mercieca (‘Birds on a wire’, September 26) “in an attempt to discover the reality behind the headlines” writes: “Flying past were turtle doves and quails, both unprotected species which hunters are free to shoot down during autumn”.

Rather than the purported ‘reality’ this sentence qualifies as the best joke of the year. I have been out every day of the season with my dogs and apart from seeing only 24 turtle doves since September 1, my two dogs, that have been flushing quail for years, have not yet flushed one quail this year.

Similar facts can be corroborated by my fellow hunter friends.

It is indeed incredible how on her day out to monitor migration the reporter was able to see turtle doves and quail “flying past”, even more so when Birdlife’s Nicholas Barbara is quoted as having said: “This morning is probably our quietest day so far, on one day last week there were so many birds they looked like flies”.

As for Mr Barbara’s day where birds “looked like flies”, unless his identification of birds is that poor, can he please specify that day and list his observations, since so far, in over 40 years of hunting, I have never seen such an occurrence locally?

As the saying goes, “birds of a feather flock together”.

Clearly some people are seeking to create a ‘reality’ they assume readers will believe.

Obviously this ‘reality’ is unquestionably published and goes to prove that hunters’ claims that “unverified reports that have a negative impact on Malta’s image internationally and the country’s tourism” are made up of similar concocted nonsense.