According to BirdLife Malta, a number of GPS-tracked and/or colour-ringed highly-protected birds of prey that were being tracked to study their migration have in the past days disappeared as they arrived in Malta.
In a statement on Monday, the NGO said that a Czech Black Kite, a rehabilitated Honey-buzzard and a colour-ringed Lesser Spotted Eagle were among these studied birds that “vanished over Malta, as illegal hunting on land as well as at sea continues to take its toll on protected species.”
The NGO explained that the GPS-tracked Black Kite that started its life in the Czech Republic stopped transmitting after it migrated to Malta. OT-093, as it has been coded, was one of two young Black Kites rescued from their nest near the city of Ostrava in northeast Czech Republic, after the birds were abandoned by their parents.
A local birder saved them and took them to a rescue centre, where they were reared to fledging age. They were later introduced to another nest of two young Black Kites in southeast Czech Republic, with all four birds being fitted with solar-powered GPS transmitters to monitor their migration by the University of Veterinary Sciences in Brno.
OT-093 started off its journey on 23rd September heading southwest through Austria, Hungary, Slovenia, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Croatia. It crossed the Adriatic Sea on the 29th of September, and kept flying south until its last night in southern Sicily on the 2nd of October.
On the 3rd of October it continued south to Malta, flying past Gozo at 2:30pm, and reaching the Rabat/Dingli areas an hour later, settling to sleep for the night in trees in Fawwara.
BirdLife Malta said that “no further positions outside its roosting spot were received the following morning.”
The case is the second one in a week of a tracked bird which went missing in Malta, BirdLife Malta said. Earlier last Monday, a Honey-buzzard that arrived exhausted to the island, crash-landing in an apartment in Pietà on the 15th of September, was released on Comino, after it was nursed back to health by BirdLife Malta.
Upon its release on 2nd October, the bird headed south past Buskett, and continued further south in the afternoon, with its signal going dead around 4:30pm in the limits of Birzebbuga.
BirdLife Malta said that, “in both cases the trackers fitted on the birds are believed to have been destroyed upon the birds being killed.”
BirdLife Malta stressed that the “conservation efforts at protecting such species over the past days have proved tough for BirdLife Malta staff, birdwatchers and volunteers with a good migration of a number of rare species which are highly targeted for taxidermy such as Black and White Storks, and various eagle species – Booted, Short-toed and Lesser Spotted.”
It added that “volunteer teams participating in BirdLife Malta’s annual Raptor Camp had a direct role in monitoring the movements of such rare birds assisting at times just a single police unit patrolling against hunting illegalities.”
BirdLife said that efforts at watching over a Short-toed Snake-eagle proved successful at first, with a single bird managing to survive two nights on Malta despite attempts at shooting at it.
However, BirdLife Malta said that “the bird left out at sea the morning of the 1st of October, only to be chased by a boat with hunters, who were filmed shooting down the bird between Malta and Filfla.”
It added that footage of the incident was passed to the Environmental Protection Unit (EPU) of the Malta Police Force, following which an investigation set off to apprehend the suspects.
BirdLife added that “all this is happening as enforcement resources are struggling to keep up with reports, especially at sea where police patrols are absent.”
BirdLife highlighted the fact that “the hunting season at sea, which opened on the 1st of October, sees over 290 licensed hunters using boats to chase down migrating birds in open water outside 3km from the coast.”
“An FKNK proposal in front of an ORNIS Committee meeting scheduled for Tuesday proposes that the 3km distance allowing hunters to kill birds at sea is shortened to 1km, bringing hunters closer to the shore,” it said.
BirdLife argued that “it is an unnecessary move which will serve only to decimate more protected birds that might survive the current killing season in Malta, only to face guns also at sea, where enforcement is even more difficult.”
The incident of the Short-toed Snake-eagle is not the last one, BirdLife said, with a colour-ringed Lesser Spotted Eagle that made an appearance over Buskett last Saturday also being killed in the vicinity shortly after birdwatchers attempted to photograph its ring to determine its origin. “Up to now no information on the origins of this eagle is known.”
BirdLife Malta appealed to members of the public to come forward with any information on such incidents to be able to assist police in executing their duties of enforcing hunting illegalities.
Reports can be made by phone to EPU on 119 and to BirdLife Malta on 2134 7645/7925 5697 or by email to info@birdlifemalta.org [1]
Photos: BirdLife Malta