Birdlife Malta has said that over the last few days, a flock of 20 White Storks (Cikonja Bajda) and the first migratory raptors (birds of prey/tajr tal-priza) have been seen by local birdwatchers, heralding the start of the autumn migration season.

Europe’s birds have once again started to leave their breeding grounds ahead of the winter months, moving towards their African wintering grounds. As an island on the central migratory route, Malta is an important stepping stone for many birds as they cross over the Mediterranean, Birdlife said.

White Storks are rare visitors to Malta yet at the end of August a flock of 20 were seen, heralding the start of this year’s autumn migration season. These include large numbers of birds of prey (raptors), whose migration peaks between September and early October. During this period, large numbers of raptors arrive in Malta in the late afternoon, where they fly low searching for suitable safe roost sites to spend the night. They gather in areas such as Buskett Bird Sanctuary and Mizieb and on good days can number in the hundreds, offering observers spectacular views.

Birdlife went on to say thatr ing recoveries have shown that raptor species such as Ospreys (Arpa) come to Malta from as far away as Sweden, Finland and Germany, and the Marsh Harrier (Baghdan Ahmar), a common migrant in Malta, shown to come from eight European countries including Finland, Latvia, Poland and the Czech Republic.

BirdLife Malta said that it has invited international guests to join its annual Raptor Camp coinciding with the peak raptor migration. As part of this camp, which will run from 11th to 26th September, volunteers will record data on migrating birds while also reporting illegalities to the police and gathering photo and video evidence to help with their investigations.

The Raptor Camp will welcome volunteers from 7 countries in Europe, all being countries which birds migrating over Malta come from.

Migration also coincides with the start of the autumn hunting season, which is open for five months from the 1st September to the 31s t January for 32 species of wild migratory birds. Between the 15th and 30th September hunting may not take place after 15:00 to protect migrating raptors, which at that time are flying low over Malta searching for a roost site and are therefore particularly vulnerable to illegal hunters.

Photo of a White Stork – Hadoram Shirihai.

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