Every bird shot in spring is one nest less

Turtle dove

There a many reasons for voting no in next Saturday’s referendum one of the main ones being that those who do not hunt want to be able to visit the countryside at the best time of the year without feeling threatened by the presence of thousands of hunters who behave as if they have an exclusive right to be in the countryside.

There is above all another reason which we should not forget; the protection of turtle doves and quails when they are on their way to breed.

These two species have been hunted in many parts of Europe for centuries. In the past animals were hunted to augment the amount of meat available to eat especially for country people who could not afford to buy other sources of protein.

With today’s high standard of living nobody needs to hunt to have meat on the plate. Hunting is carried out solely for pleasure to which there are alternatives such as bird watching and bird photography.

The hunting of birds is no longer necessary especially in spring when every bird is about to breed. Every bird shot in spring is one nest less. If Maltese hunters were not blinded by their obsession they would realise that they should stop killing turtle doves.

The population of turtle doves is decreasing. Since 1970 declines occurred in up to 60% of the countries for which trends are known and the declines are continuing.

Maltese hunters who have been hunting since the 1970s or early eighties are fully aware of this decrease in numbers. Thirty years ago turtle doves used to migrate in large numbers. 

Nowadays the turtle dove is not common at all. Hunters try to justify their pastime by saying that they shoot only ‘small’ numbers of turtle doves but do not say that they shoot fewer birds than they used to because year after year the number of migrating turtle doves is less and less.

The alarm bells have been ringing for many years. Hunters should have taken their heads out of the sand a long time ago and since they did not the time has come for all responsible Maltese citizens to make them stop this destruction before it is too late.   

This article was published in the Times of Malta on 9 April 2015.

Spring hunting

This year’s spring hunting season is nearly over and never too soon because it should have never been opened in the first place. The shooting of turtle doves and quails in spring does not make sense.

Hunters have been complaining for years that the number of migrating game birds has decreased. Older hunters talk nostalgically about the days many years ago when large numbers of turtle doves migrated over the Maltese islands. Hunters had been catching birds in spring for centuries and the birds kept coming every spring but those days are over. 

The number of turtle doves migrating over the Maltese islands started to decrease decades ago. 

The warnings have been there for all to see but the hunters still refuse to read the signs. When the turtle doves did not arrive they blamed the weather - next year will be better - but it was not. Then they blamed the oil refineries in North Africa which they said were preventing the birds from migrating. 

When Maltese hunters started to go on hunting trips to Egypt they realised that there they could still find a lot of turtle doves there so they concluded that the turtle doves had changed routes but they never blamed themselves and they still don’t.

The days when turtle doves migrated in large numbers are over because as the Maltese say ‘Tieħu bla ma trodd is-swar tħott’ which in English can be roughly translated as if you take away without putting back, even the fortifications are dismantled.

To make matters worse many hunters are not adhering to the conditions which they are supposed to follow. Birds of prey and other protected birds are still being shot. 

The Prime Minister said that no law breaking will be tolerated and the season will be closed if laws are broken. But, how many protected birds have to be killed before he can say that enough is enough? 

BirdLife which is organising another spring camp to monitor bird hunting has already stated that it has recorded hundreds of cases of law breaking. And how is the government going to justify all this with the European Commission? Spring hunting does not make sense and should not be allowed. The Maltese government should have made a bold decision in favour of nature and the environment and brought Malta in line with the rest of Europe.

The disappearing turtle dove

The European population of the turtle dove is declining. 

A census carried out in 2007 has shown that its numbers have fallen by 62% because of changes in agriculture and the shooting of migratory birds in southern Europe. 

The decline is so big that experts believe that this species is going towards what is termed as continental extinction. What stops it from being listed as an endangered species is the large Asian population which is still healthy.

The turtle dove is a migratory species that spends the winter in southern Africa. The number of turtle doves migrating over the Maltese islands has also gone down, probably by more than 62 % which is the European average. 

When I started bird watching, thirty years ago, we used to see more turtle doves than we see nowadays. At that time hunters used to describe the large flocks of turtle doves which migrated over Malta every year. 

Probably none of these hunters expected that the turtle dove would decrease so much that it would one day become an endangered species. Hopefully the turtle dove will not go the same way as the North American passer pigeon which with an estimated population of between 3 and 5 billion birds was considered to be one of the most abundant birds in the world. 

This species migrated in large flocks that could stretch 1.6 km wide and 500 km long across the sky, sometimes taking several hours to pass. In the early 19th century gunners started to shoot at these birds for food and sport and by the end of the century what conservationists had been saying for a long time did happen – the passer pigeon became extinct in the wild.

The disappearance of this species gave a major impetus to the conservation movement in the United States which resulted in new legislation being passed to conserve nature. Unfortunately this came too late to save the passer pigeon.

The Maltese government will be allowing the shooting of turtle doves for six days while they are migrating to their breeding sites at the end of this month. This decision goes against all conservation practices as every bird shot at this time of the year means one nest less. Furthermore in Malta during the hunting season all birds, whether protected or not, are shot.

 Protected birds were indiscriminately shot during the autumn and are still being shot now even though the hunting season is not yet open. The police so far have not been able to control the situation and we would be deluding ourselves to believe that things have changed.

To add insult to injury on Monday the Prime Minister announced that next year hunters will be allowed to hunt for three whole weeks. No spring hunting was allowed for the past two years and the results were there for everyone to see. It was not just birdwatchers who noticed more birds in the Maltese countryside but also casual visitors to the countryside and even people who do not visit the countryside at all. I met many people who excitedly described flocks of birds which they had never seen before.

 If the Prime Minister goes on with his intention of opening the hunting season Malta will again be shamed throughout Europe, because a small group of people arrogantly hold the rest of the country hostage and those who should be saying no to them give in as soon as they start protesting. Thanks to this attitude the turtle dove which in many parts of the world has become the emblem of devoted love and the other migratory birds which we have been seeing in the past two years will again disappear.

This article appeared in The Times on 14.04.10