Early on Monday morning Rangers from the Malta Ranger Unit were guarding a roosting site metres away from Protected Chadwick Lakes in Malta, where they said, 12 Honey Buzzards were reported to have landed to roost late Sunday evening.

The Rangers said that an individual was reported at night to be seen walking around the area with a flashlight among the trees but he went away after a while.

The MRU reported that “only one of those 12 Buzzards left their roosting site on Monday morning, it’s unclear what happened to the others.”

At 6:40am on Monday morning, the Rangers said that “an individual dressed in dark clothing was seen with a shotgun, less than 20 metres away from the built up area (minimum distance is 200 metres as per SL.549.42), and started throwing stones up into the tree.

“The lonely Buzzard got a fright and took off, and less than 5 seconds later it was shot at 3 times and is seen going towards the ground,” the MRU said. Although Police arrived swiftly as the scene “unfortunately the offender got away.” There was no information as to whether the bird was located.

The Malta Ranger Unit urged the Government “to stop ignoring the calls for strengthening the Environmental Protection Unit Police.”

“We urge the decision-makers to wake up and protect our biodiversity not only on a piece of paper, but in real life,” the MRU said.

File photo: BirdLife Malta/Aaron Tanti and video Malta Ranger Unit

Permalink: Watch – Protected juvenile Honey Buzzard shot down in front of Rangers