Intolerance towards BirdLife Malta and volunteers of the organisation’s Spring Watch Camp continues to be rife around the Maltese islands as one of the teams’ cars this morning was the target of a vandal attack up in Gharghur. The same team’s observation post was also covered with body pieces of at least two cats.

The car’s windscreen was smashed by a hard object which resulted in cracks and two of the tyres were cut with a knife. When the team arrived on site at 6 a.m. there were other cars parked there but none of them were targeted except for the one belonging to BirdLife’s volunteers.

BirdLife Malta’s Conservation Manager Dr. André Raine said: “The Police came along shortly and our team leader explained that two separate individuals had hurled abuse at the team earlier that morning. One of the individuals was observed getting out of a car with a gun and heading into the fields while the other person was in his hunting hide.”

In another incident a separate Spring Watch Team that went to Nadur tower in Malta found pieces of wood hidden in the grass with long nails sticking out of them last Friday. These ‘implements’ result in multiple punctures once cars drive over them with the evidence cleverly concealed, as the wood breaks away completely once the nail pierces the tyre.

Furthermore, various teams have been subjected to verbal abuse at different locations since the beginning of the Spring Watch Camp. One of the teams at Delimara in the afternoon on Monday, April 14 was surrounded by aggressive individuals and ordered to leave the area, although the team was on public land. A team posted at Fomm ir-Rih in the morning on Sunday, April 20 was approached by a group of individuals who had previously been observed hiding a shotgun in the foliage. These individuals blocked the road with a pickup truck so that the Spring Watch Camp participants could not leave the area and demanded to see the video footage taken by the Team Leader. One of the Maltese volunteers on the team spoke to them to diffuse the situation and on informing them that the Police were on their way, these individuals left the area.

BirdLife Malta appealed to the government to take all necessary measures to handle the situation in the countryside.

For more information on BirdLife’s conservation efforts and to view regular updates on Spring Watch Camp, please visit www.birdlifemalta.org

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