Not about ornithology, but simply about wild birds identification in the field), marvelled at the spectacle of bird migration over the Maltese Islands, even suggesting a way forward for Malta's incoming tourism through the creation of a niche market for bird watchers (mind you, not hunters’ watchers)!

And it seems that their German friends whom BirdLife had also invited to Malta for bird watching, immediately followed the Malta team. Probably to claim some sort of refund for not having observed the migration of the millions of birds that BirdLife had promised them!

As for the other BirdLife Malta foreign leader, the biologist hailing from Bermuda who first set foot on the Maltese islands just last year - what has become of your prophesies, Dr Raine? Why haven't several pairs of both turtle doves and quail stayed to breed in Malta, now that we had spring closed for hunting, thanks to BirdLife fallacies transmitted to the EU Commission? And where are all the nesting finches, now that we have had the consecutive second year with no trapping of these species in March? You had openly declared that all these species did not stay to breed and raise their young in Malta because these were either trapped or shot.

Wild migrating birds do not belong to BirdLife, nor to the hunters or trappers, nor to Europe where they normally only spend four months of any year, and not even to Africa, where they spent the rest of the year.

In the spring time every year over 200 different bird species may be met over the Maltese Islands, ranging from abundant to vagrant status. The Maltese hunters only want to hunt, as they have always done since time immemorial, for two species. All the other birders can have, if they really bother, the enjoyment of the other odd 198 species.

Birkirkara.