My short stint at Spring Watch starts at the hotel which the group of around 30 international volunteers will call home for the rest of the month, but a BirdLife employee cautions that it’s best not to name it.
It might attract undue attention, he explains, recalling a past incident in which car tyres had been slashed.
BirdLife volunteers have been subject to harassment and the occasional violent incident – as have those affiliated with German conservation NGO CABS, which runs its own monitoring efforts – in past spring and autumn hunting seasons.
At the time of writing, however, they have not faced any particularly hostile confrontation. Of course, this does not mean that volunteers did not come across illegal hunting and trapping: in fact, “my” team was no exception.
For many volunteers, this is not the first Maltese conservation camp: some, in fact, have ended up coming to Malta twice a year – BirdLife also organises a “Raptor Camp” in autumn – perhaps because of the great diversity of birds, or perhaps because of the challenge faced.
One particular volunteer, a BirdLife employee notes, has a more personal reason: he has been hoping to see a hoopoe, but to no avail.
Planning the operation
A sizeable room within the hotel effectively serves as Spring Watch’s command central. A small team always stays indoors while teams of volunteers are out on patrol, to coordinate the operation.
Volunteers work two daily shifts throughout the duration of the camp. The first shift starts at dawn, while the second lasts until sunset, save for exceptional circumstances.
BirdLife has to take weather conditions into consideration when it picks the locations its volunteers are assigned. Needless to say, so do hunters when it comes to picking hunting grounds.
To cover as much ground as possible, BirdLife and CABS coordinate their efforts; but as BirdLife staff explain, the two NGOs’ employ different approaches. BirdLife’s modus operandi is to seek strategic lookout points and monitor as large an area as possible with the aid of telescopes and binoculars. CABS, on the other hand, prefers a more direct approach.
A total of seven teams are sent out for my afternoon shift, and each team is given a name for reference purposes. The names are predictable: I am assigned to “Team Quail.”
Teams are typically made up of three or four people, a group small enough to fit in one of BirdLife’s rented cars. This time round, Team Quail is the largest of the lot with five members: although this number, of course, includes their inexperienced guest.
The role of team leader either goes to an experienced volunteer – many volunteers join the camp year after year – or a BirdLife staff member. Since teams often go to remote locations and can expect to move from place to place during their shift, a driver is essential.
Each team is also typically assigned someone with a keen eye for identifying the different species of birds which may be encountered. But bird guides are always taken on to provide a handy reference.
A scribe, who records relevant information as accurately as possible, is essential.
Our scribe, Mike, explains that each team fills out two reports each time it is out and about. One of these reports, unsurprisingly, focuses on the illegal activities witnessed or heard, while the other report focuses on the migratory birds that are observed.
Most bird sightings are simply noted down, with as much information as can be gleaned from the observation. But when birds which are likely to be targeted by poachers are spotted, such as flamingos and rare birds of prey, central command is informed, to determine whether the team – or another one in the direction the birds were heading – should keep watch over the bird.
As it turns out, my afternoon stint at Spring Watch took place during a relatively quiet period and Team Quail does not make any sightings warranting a call to base. However, that did not mean that the afternoon shift was incident-free.
Roaming in Mtahleb
Team Quail is assigned to the Mtahleb area, where two policemen from the Administrative Law Enforcement unit are found to be on patrol. The ALE is responsible for monitoring wildlife crimes, although BirdLife has long argued that they lack the necessary resources to deal with poaching.
Hunting is prohibited after 3pm – roughly when the team makes it to Migra l-Ferha. But four shots are heard in quick succession within 10 minutes of our arrival: even the firearm used is illegal, since hunting weapons should only have a maximum capacity of three shots.
A hunter is spotted at a distance, and two team members seek to get a closer look, but to no avail. A further three shots are fired before the team moves on to another area, a point on the Mtahleb ridge which overlooks Wied ir-Rum.
The team scans the area with their binoculars and telescopes, and team leader Fiona comes across a suspicious site which is confirmed to be an illegal trapping site on closer inspection.
Calling all three ALE numbers proves futile, but luckily, the team also has the number of one of the officers sighted earlier in hand. The two officers head on site after reaching the team to confirm its location.
From our vantage point, the team looks on – with a video camera running – as the two officers find the site, which they dismantle. A quick search for possible perpetrators is futile: neither the officers nor the team members spot any suspicious individuals.
Their job done, the two policemen return to the team and show the spoils of the operation: a net, a tiny cage with three visibly distressed and slightly-injured quails, which were being used as live decoys, and an electronic lure – which is illegal even when trapping is permissible. The birds are taken to a MEPA environment officer, who is set to release them in Comino.
The next stop is a site overlooking Wied Liemu, opposite the Annunciation church and friary in Rabat. There were no sightings to report, although the team is approached by a farmer who inquires whether we are with BirdLife.
The farmer is not opposed to hunting, but he condemns the excesses some hunters and trappers had engaged in, remarking that this hardly helped fellow hunters defend their practice. He, too, used to hunt, but adds: “a flying bird is a great sight,” he adds.
Before he moves on, he points out a possible trapping hotspot nearby, and a popular roosting site for birds of prey. The information is passed on to the team for future reference.
Obviously, the hostile encounters are more likely to make the news, but it seems that Spring Watch participants also regularly come across sympathetic people, even hunters. BirdLife and hunters’ associations, on the other hand, do not exactly see eye to eye.
The day’s work
The team ends up hearing 19 definite shots in all, including the initial four from an obviously illegal firearm. The only other illegality witnessed is the trapping site at Wied ir-Rum.
It also spots a marsh harrier and two other harriers, likely belonging to the same species, hundreds of barn swallows and house martins, a small flock of swifts, around a dozen whinchats, a woodchat shrike, a pied flycatcher, a collared flycatcher, a golden oriole, three bee-eaters and two turtledoves. Apart from the three caged specimens retrieved from the trapping site, Team Quail does not end up spotting any of its namesakes.
Expect frequent stops when in a car with birdwatchers: the driver is asked to step on the brakes on each sighting of migratory birds. In fact, the most notable sightings of the day are made while on the road.
The team faces no hostile confrontations of note: at one point, a motorcycle rider does come up and shout some remarks, although they could not be heard over the sound of his own bike. And what appears to be their greatest fear – witnessing rare birds being shot down – does not materialise.
But the afternoon had been a quiet one as far as bird migration was concerned: if as it turns out, the camp participants had their hands full the following morning, as a large number of turtledoves made their way to Malta.
The situation may have been different if particularly rare birds had been sighted. Such sightings, it seems, are what the volunteers seek the most – but also what they are most apprehensive about.