Bird migration is one of the world's most magnificent phenomena. Birds possess an impressive ability to navigate thousands of miles, often without resting, and they can fly to places they may not have visited before and return home after months away.
This journey can, however, turn out to be a death trap. If birds do not pinpoint the right habitat when they begin their journey, they will not survive. This challenge is quite daunting, because it is a do or die scenario for millions of migrating birds around the world.
Birds migrate in search of food and nesting places. With the first signs of winter, those in northern Europe embark on the long trek south in search of warmer climates. With the return of spring, the young birds have to knuckle down and make the journey up north. The physical stress of the trip, the lack of adequate food along the way, bad weather and exposure to predators all add to the hazards of the journey and many birds never make it back home.
These winged creatures have probably been at the centre of human attraction since the dawn of time. Heated debates and rivalries on birds are a common occurrence on this island and in a bid to get a somewhat clearer picture of what lies on the two sides of the great divide, I have talked to two people in the know for their side of the story.
Ornithologist and bird enthusiast Natalino Fenech noted: "There are risks that humans create for migrating birds such as pesticides, hunting and trapping.
"Ornithologists study bird migration by the use of satellite tracking and geo tracking. A small transmitter operated by a solar battery is attached to the bird and this enables researchers to see where the bird is in real time," Dr Fenech said. "If people learn more about birds and how fragile their life is they will view them with more respect".
On the other hand, a bird trapper, who wished to remain anonymous, maintains that bird trappers have a great affection for these flying machines and that it is hard to explain how difficult it would be to give up his long-time hobby. "Many times we end up being negatively portrayed, but few people love birds as much as we do", he said.
Asked whether he felt that capturing wild birds was harming nature, he said, his voice breaking with emotion: "I capture birds to look after them. We do not harm birds and our actions do not affect their numbers. No one knows how many migrating species are killed by feral cats each year, how many drown while crossing the oceans during their migration and how they suffer because of climate change. The relatively few that we capture legally each year are a fraction of the countless birds unwittingly killed by human action such as the abuse of chemicals that spoil our waterways and the organisms that birds thrive on."
He referred to the fact that the birds he traps are housed in aviaries and proudly pointed out that he manages to breed most of the species of songbirds he keeps.
Bird enthusiasts, regardless of which side of the fence they come from, should not waste their time fighting each other. As they all profess that they really have this great affection for these flying marvels, they should unite and invest their energy flying the flag on behalf of these wonderful feathered colonies, for the sake of their pastimes and of the birds themselves.