The Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) today announced that it will come to Malta this autumn with 32 Bird Guards – more than ever before, from the 15th of September to the 7th of October.

CABS said that the participants include volunteers from Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Malta, Poland, Rumania, UK and the USA.

“Operation ‘Honey Buzzard’ takes place at the peak of bird migration and volunteers will monitor the flight corridors and night roosts of birds of prey, storks and herons around the clock and report offences against hunting law to the police. Other tasks include the detection and checking of illegal clap nets and cage traps for trapping of Turtle Doves. Quails and protected wader species.”

CABS said that “in order to collect evidence of illegalities for the police, each CABS team is equipped with video cameras and high-performance spotting scopes. In addition CABS offered Police Commissioner John Rizzo the provision – at no cost to the police – of a remote-controlled model aircraft with high-definition video cameras and a qualified operator. This would greatly assist the A.L.E. to detect illegal trapping sites, an important factor in the campaign against illegal trapping, according to CABS. In spring this year CABS and the German TV station RTL were able to detect a good number of illegal trapping installations by using a similar flying device.”

According to CABS the Bird Guards will this autumn be deployed for the first time for an extended three week period.

As in spring this year and in addition to their operations on the main island, CABS said that a number of teams will be stationed permanently on Gozo.

CABS said that the reason for the increased CABS presence on Malta’s sister island “is the fact that the specialised anti-poaching officers of the A.L.E. are only permitted to operate there on a very restricted basis – if at all – and the Gozo police receive no reinforcement during peak bird migration.”

“An analysis of our data from the past few years have also shown that a considerable number of migrant birds that make landfall on the Maltese Archipelago roost overnight on Gozo,” adds CABS spokesperson and biologist Axel Hirschfeld.

In this connection CABS greet the Maltese Government’s decision to again impose an afternoon hunting curfew for the last two weeks of September in an attempt to afford additional protection for the passage of birds of prey in this period.

“On the other hand,” CABS said, “the conservationists are appalled by the recommendation of the Ornis Committee that the trapping of Golden Plover in clap nets should again be permitted this year.”

“In many parts of Europe the populations of this species has massively declined over the past few years and cannot therefore be sustainably hunted for the time being” states CABS Board Member David Conlin.

CABS concluded by pointing out that the use of clap nets, banned under the EU Bird Protection Guidelines, requires the issue of a so-called derogation. If Malta issues such a derogation it will with certainty be strictly scrutinised by the European Commission.

Photograph shows a Honey Buzzard in flight – CABS.

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