English naturalist Chris Packham continued his high-profile campaign against spring hunting in Malta on the BBC breakfast show this morning, saying that he found it “sickening” to have the blood of illegally shot birds over his hands for a whole week.

Instead of continuing on with their migrations, the birds end up “lying in a ditch somewhere or in someone’s stomach,” Mr Packham said.

“Malta legalised their own hunt of turtle dove and quail. It is crazy to shoot these birds when they are the adult surviving members.”

He accused the government of doing “everything it can to say that this is not happening.”

He acknowledged the efforts of the police to try and keep tabs on what hunters are doing, but said there are simply not enough policemen to do the job.

The BBC Breakfast show also spoke to a Maltese hunter, Mark Mifsud Bonnici.

Mr Bonnici said that the spring hunt in Malta is “limited and controlled,” with a quota of 16,000 birds having to be shared among 10,000 hunters.

He also accused Britain of permitting hunting and “destruction of eggs to eradicate a number of species.”