Springwatch Malta Update

During the first week of Spring Watch, BirdLife Malta volunteers have suffered several violent attacks while carrying out their duties recording bird migration and reporting illegal hunting and trapping incidents to the police.

The following attacks have taken place:

1. Sunday 11th April - a team was harassed and verbally abused at Nadur Tower.
2. Monday 12th April – after filming an illegal hunter, the team at Mtarfa was threatened by men with sticks.
3. Wednesday 13th April – a team discovered hate messages, swastikas and threats at the Mtahleb watch point.
4. Friday 15th April – a team discovers hate messages, swastikas and threats at the Dingli watch point.
5. Saturday 17th April - stones were thrown at team members in Has-Saptan
6. Saturday 17th April – a team at Mtahleb was verbally abused and the team leader given a death threat.
7. Saturday 17th April – windscreen of a team’s vehicle parked in front of the Manikata village church, 20 mt away from a children’s playground, shattered by a shot from a shotgun.
8. Sunday 18th April – 2 team members thrown to the ground and beaten in Dingli after witnessing illegal hunting in the area.

For more information:
www.birdlifemalta.org/hunting/actnow/

Updated: Shot car was being used by BirdLife volunteers

Updated: Shot car was being used by BirdLife volunteers

Frantic Times

Spring is pretty busy and I have been in the field as much as possible. Over the past two weeks I have been visiting several sites on a regular basis filming the wonders of spring as they happen. Frogs spawning, Woodpigeons and Herons mating, Tree Sparrows, Rooks, Long-tailed Tits and Nuthatches building their nests, Robins, Blackbirds and Chiffchaffs advertising their territories, Brown Hare bucks chasing after does, odd hybrid ducks on canals, exotic, elusive Mandarins and my first experience of calling out Weasels. I'm not sure which moment has been the most memorable, the ball of intertwined frogs slowly drifting down stream into the reservoir, a plucky male Mandarin scrapping with a Mallard twice its size, calling out the Weasel, or filming a pair of Dippers making their nest in an old outflow pipe of a mill.
Having filmed so much, I'm surprised that I have managed to get some of it on line already. when the weather was grim, I managed to find time to piece together a little video of Buzzards and Turnstones that I filmed on Anglesey in December.
It may be a while before all of this materialises as completed pieces, but it should be worth waiting for. At the moment I'm working on a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker piece, and I have a Yellowhammer piece that still needs some work.
Meanwhile, I have yet to film Hares actually boxing. I have some good shots of a pair of Brown Hare but they are being somewhat elusive at the moment. Let's see what tomorrow brings........

Much To Do

It seems like there are never enough hours in the day. The last couple of weeks have been pretty hectic with a lot of time in the field filming Frogs spawning, and birds singing, displaying, mating, nest-building or just sitting on nests. Underwater filming in the frog pools was largely unsuccessful due to poor visibility in the water and the shallowness of the pools and filming at a local Heronry involved a lot of standing around whilst the birds just sat around waiting for their partners. We have also had some changeable weather. Gusting Arctic winds prevented me getting any really useful Lapwing and Curlew footage this weekend, and now the rain has arrived. I have lots of material shot over the last few months, that I have yet to fashion into watch-able pieces but creating the music is slowing me down a little. I'm working on a traditional Welsh tune at the moment, to use with some material that I shot on Anglesey in December. Some nice Buzzard and Turnstone clips. Once this is nailed down, I can move on to the Frog material. Lesser-spotted Woodpecker and Yellowhammer pieces are waiting in the wings and I hope to be filming Toads in a day or two...Watch this space.....

Hunting Dog Trials

This piece is a somewhat disturbing posting on You Tube by JadgeterrierFan. It appears that Badger baiting is alive and well and living in Russia.....and Bulgaria.....and Serbia.
Such videos are currently being "flagged" to YouTube HQ as inappropriate content containing images of animal abuse. As far as I know, such flagging of content only gets the video taken down and does nothing to prevent such abuse taking place. It is also unlikely to result in the prosecution of the perpetrators.It does not solve the problem, and having the video removed will merely drive the problem underground and allow it to continue out of sight. Rather than flagging these videos, a campaign involving increasing public awareness would be far more appropriate. 
This particular video clip is of a "CACT Badger Trial". Some people , breeders perhaps,  wish to gain "hard core certification" for their working dogs.......in particular, by pitting them against "game" , such as wild boar, badger, foxes, wildcats, rabbits and ducks. CACT appears to be one such certificate involving German Jadg Terriers and Badgers. This would be illegal in the UK and probably (?) throughout the EU although I have no accurate information on current EU animal abuse legislation. Perhaps a reader could enlighten me on this point.  Such certification is currently practised in Russia, Bulgaria and Serbia where it may (?) still be legal. Breeders from abroad may take their animals to these contests in order to gain these certificates. 
Rather than flagging these videos, an e-mail campaign to the appropriate  authorities would have far more impact.
Can you imagine this happening at Crufts?

Hunter Harassment Law is Unconstitutional - Support Jan Haagensen and her fight to demolish it.

Jan Haagensen writes:

Every citizen has the right to say NO to armed invasions of private property. Without the sanctuary I provide for wild creatures in my community, they would be mercilessly hunted, without hope of any refuge from the slaughter. The Commonwealth has to be shown the futility of attempting to help the killers muscle their way onto private land, over the legitimate and constitutionally protected resistance of individual landowners.

My suit will help to save the lives of many wild creatures, in addition to protecting (sometimes physically) those property owners who exercise their free speech rights to say I DO NOT WANT KILLING ON MY GROUND. I need the protection of a federal court to carry on the fight in my community, in defense of my home, and in defense of the home which I provide for wild creatures. I am at risk if I do not repair the damage to my reputation and livelihood; I am at physical risk if the hunters are not made to understand that further attacks on me could be dangerous to their financial health, and will not be tolerated by a federal court with jurisdiction over my challenge to the constitutionality of the harassment statute.



 
Anthony Marr interview with Jan Haagensen

http://files1.mailboxdrive.com/mp3s-n...

Leg of a young fawn left behind by hunters

http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm...

From Committee to Abolish Sports Hunting also has many subject on Jan Haagensen and where you can help with monetary support
 
There are three ways to donate to C.A.S.H. for Jan Haagensen:
 
1) Check made out to C.A.S.H. or Committee to Abolish Sport Hunting with Legal Fund-Jan Haagensen on the check, and mailed to: C.A.S.H., P.O. Box 562, New Paltz, NY 12561

2) Visa or MasterCard by calling 877-WILDHELP and specifiying that its for the Legal Fund-Jan Haagensen

3) PayPal from the C.A.S.H. website: www.abolishsporthunting.org and clicking on Donate

Steps toward a Legal Challenge to Hunter Harassment Statutes

http://www.all-creatures.org/cash/cc2...

HUNTERS IMMUNIZED FROM CRIMINAL PROSECUTION

http://www.all-creatures.org/cash/cc2...

*****

Anthony Marr website
HOPE (Heal Our Planet Earth)
http://www.all-creatures.org/hope/
Youtube
http://www.youtube.com/AnthonyMarr

...Recreational hunters are a danger to society and do not care about human lives at all. (obviously why would they when they could care less how animal suffer for their own amusement)

HER VICTORY WILL BE STEPPING STONE TO DEMOLISH HUNTERS HARASSMENT STATUTE

March could be the month where the future of whales is changed forever.

In St. Petersburg, Florida the International Whaling Commission (IWC) just finished a meeting where they discussed a proposal to resume commercial whaling a final vote will take place in the coming months.

And in Tokyo, the Japanese government just resumed its efforts to silence us from exposing the true nature of Japanese “scientific whaling.”

Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki, Greenpeace Japan activists, are currently standing trial for theft and trespass. What they really did was expose a scandal of government corruption in the whaling industry. They’ve already been held for 26 days - 23 of them without charge - interrogated daily for up to ten hours, often strapped to chairs and without access to counsel. Now they face up to ten years in jail for doing what any honest citizen should do - expose corruption.
The charges against these two incredibly brave activists are for allegedly intercepting a box of whale meat and presenting it as evidence to the Public Prosecutor. The box of whale meat had been illicitly removed by crew of a whaling factory ship, marked as "cardboard" and shipped to a private address. Tracked by our activists, it was intercepted and turned over as evidence of corruption at the heart of the whaling operation.

It’s an outrage that these brave activists are treated as criminals for defending whales, while the U.S. Administration and other IWC members consider rewarding the real criminals by legalizing their slaughter of whales.

I can only guess that whaling nations like Japan, Norway and Iceland and some members of the IWC believe that Greenpeace and our supporters can be bullied by excessive prosecution or sidelined by simply removing the moratorium.

Have they got it wrong! Greenpeace was one of the first groups to take action and highlight the plight of the whales over 35 years ago, and we'll continue to defend these amazing creatures for as long as it takes.

Source - Greenpeace mail shot.

Help Protect US Mustangs

Not quite a conservation issue, but more of an animal rights issue and a misappropriation of public resources, this story just came over the wire.
US Mustangs are actually feral descendants of European horses brought to North America by Spanish invaders. The US Yukon Wild Ass, like the European Tarpan is extinct.

A Cruel Waste of Your Tax Dollars

"President Obama and his Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar are asking for $75.7 million dollars in fiscal year 2011 primarily for more roundups and $43 million to buy one preserve likely in the East to warehouse some of the wild horses the BLM has condemned to captivity.......
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVFZb8iJW7U&feature=email

10th Anniversary: The Battle for Laguna San Ignacio

In 1994, a group of environmentalists took on the might of the Mitsubishi Corporation in a bid to prevent them from destroying a a World Heritage Site, a biosphere reserve, a whale sanctuary, a migratory bird sanctuary, and the last place on Earth where Grey Whales breed and calve undisturbed by human intrusion.........6 years later, they won that battle.

Stop Poisoning Eagles In Ireland

In 2009, 1 Golden Eagle, 1 White-tailed Eagle and 1 Red Kite were found poisoned, with three different toxins in 3 separate provinces during the springtime. There was widespread public dismay and national, and some international, media concern regarding these incidents. The Scottish Authorities called for a detailed review of the Golden Eagle donor stock licence for the Donegal project as a direct result of the confirmed poisoning near Glenveagh National Park. The Irish Government repeatedly promised at the time, that a legislative change would be introduced all but banning the use of poisoned meat baits, outside exceptional licensed exemptions. This small legislative compromise, still allowing for the use of non-meat baits according to the existing poisoning regulations, has still not been introduced.

Now almost twelve months later and nothing has changed since last year. The White-tailed Eagle Steering Group in Kerry has produced a leaflet, with the support of the Irish Farmers Association, Teagasc, the Department of Agriculture and local Gun Clubs asking people to improve aspects of livestock and game protection, to avoid the use of poison meat baits, and only use alternative poison baits or control methods as a last resort.


Please sign the petition at: http://www.goldeneagle.ie/

Cheeky Herring Gull

First we have a visiting Ring-billed Gull preferring polystyrene blocks to my offerings of bread and crisps. Now we have Scottish Herring Gulls doing their own shopping....or should that be shop-lifting.

Trapping in Cyprus

Cyprus has a mountain to climb if it is to reverse disturbing recent trends in illegal bird trapping.   Autumn 2009 was a disastrous season for bird trapping and more specifically for mist netting. A 35% increase in mist net use showed that Cyprus is rapidly loosing all that it has gained in the battle against bird trapping over the past 10 years. 

Bird trapping is an illegal and indiscriminate practice that threatens many bird species of conservation concern and especially migrants. With the well-documented combined effects of Climate Change, habitat loss and habitat degradation already hitting migrant birds hard, this is an added pressure this vital portion of biodiversity cannot afford. BirdLife Cyprus’s monitoring of autumn bird trapping continued for the 8th year in a row with data gathered systematically in the field by a trained team of surveyors and all evidence of trapping relayed to the relevant enforcement authorities.

The field evidence points clearly to a rise in trapping activity last autumn – an alarming one in the case of mist netting. A total of just over 3 km of active net rides were located by the survey team – a 35% increase on the autumn of 2008.  Netting levels were particularly high in the British Sovereign Base Areas (SBAs), notably on the Pyla Range. A British-army backed sweep operation in this area in early October was a welcome first step in tackling ‘industrial’ trapping on the Range.  Lime stick use also increased in autumn 2009, and was largely the preserve of the Republic areas.

In keeping with the pattern of recent years, there was widespread evidence of many restaurants in the Republic serving illegal bird delicacies (ampelopoulia), and no reports of effective enforcement action against these. Hundreds of thousands of birds can be estimated to have fallen prey to trappers in autumn 2009 – an unacceptable toll. Adding insult to injury, a group of members of the Parliament from the trapping ‘heartland’ of Famagusta made a repeat attempt to push thorough the parliament a bill slashing penalties for trapping.

The UK House of Parliament passed a resolution pressuring the Cyprus Government to adopt harder actions against this illegal practice.

Repeats of the October 2nd large-scale sweep operation of the Cape Pyla trapping ‘black spot’ must become the norm, BirdLife Cyprus insists. Crucially, Nicosia must at long last decisively tackle the restaurants fueling trapping by serving ambelopoulia.

For more information please contact Martin Hellicar, Campaigns Manager at BirdLife Cyprus at  martin.hellicar@birdlifecyprus.org.cy 

Source - Birdlife International

No change there then?

"The new power organisations are destroying the forests of the world at headlong speed, ploughing great grazing areas into deserts, exhausting mineral resources, killing off whales, seals and a multitude of rare and beautiful species, destroying the morale of every social type and devastating the planet. The institutions of the private appropriation of land and natural resources generally, and of private enterprise for profit, which did produce a fairly tolerable, stable and "civilised" social life for all but the most impoverished, in Europe, America and East, for some centuries, have been expanded to a monstrous destructiveness by the new opportunities. The patient, nibbling, enterprising profit-seeker of the past, magnified and equipped now with the huge claws and teeth the change of scale has provided for him, has torn the old economic order to rags. Quite apart from war, our planet is being wasted and disorganised. Yet the process goes on, without any general control, more monstrously destructive even than the continually enhanced terrors of modern warfare."

H.G. Wells: The New World Order, January 1940

How To Report The News

Okay, it's not about natural history, nor about conservation, but I thought you might like a little light relief from the more serious stuff. Enjoy this clip whilst it's still available on-line.

Italy - Protest campaign against the new proposed hunting law

Following the e-mail protest campaign against proposed changes in Italian hunting legislation, the following post-script appeared on the CABS website.......

 

Postscript 8 February 2010: Italy‘s Vice-President Letta reacts to the protest campaign

Gianni Letta, the Italian Deputy PM and one of the addressees of our protest campaign, has reacted with a curious mail to CABS. On 4 February, only one day after the start of the campaign, we received a short and somewhat less than diplomatic email from Berlusconi’s deputy. The short electronic communication from the Roman government palace reads:

"BASTAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!! Basta, con queste innumerevoli mail!" - translation: "STOPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP!!!!! Put a stop to this mail flood!"

It appears as though someone in Rom is losing his cool - and that the campaign is having the desired effect! Up until midday on 8 February more than 3,000 mails had been sent to the Italian government via the CABS website …


http://www.komitee.de/en/index.php?italyprotest2010

Finch Numbers Increase in Malta Since Ban On Trapping

“The increases in the number of finches seen last year and the confirmed breeding of two species of finch show that given the chance, these birds could also breed in the Maltese islands. Finches are common breeders in Europe and they also breed on other small central Mediterranean islands.” 
Geoffrey Saliba, BirdLife Malta Campaigns Coordinator

Follow the link below for the full story.

http://www.birdlifemalta.org/view.aspx?id=232

Not all Maltese Shoot to Kill

This superb shot of a Mediterranean Gull appeared in the Times of Malta and was taken by 15 year old Nicholas Galea.
In time, most shooting on Malta will be done this way.
Follow the link to read the complete article, read the comments, and post your own responses. Then book a holiday in Malta, pack your binoculars, telescopes and cameras, and go birding there.

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20100220/local/gull-wing

Say "No!" to commercial whaling

Quoting Greenpeace press release.....

"In an altogether baffling move, a small working group of the International Whaling Commission has proposed the reinstatement of commercial whaling in order to save the whales.

This proposal is not about saving whales, however, as much as it's about saving the whaling industry. It would allow whaling to take place in the Southern Ocean whale sanctuary, not only letting the slaughter of whales there to continue but legitimizing it as well. And by legitimizing all whaling, the proposal would secure the future of whaling instead of seeking to phase it out. With a single stroke, this proposal would reverse nearly three decades of progress in protecting endangered whale species............"

Follow the link above for further information and to SIGN THE PETITION! Sorry for shouting but it's important to take decisive action on these matters, and act swiftly. Thanks.

Ring Billed Gull

Mirfield is just over the border in Kirklees, and whilst I tend not to twitch much these days, an American gull just a few miles away was worth a visit. The weather conditions were not ideal, dull, overcast and occasional light rain.
The few birders that were there, when I arrived were all viewing the bird, at some distance, through their 'scopes............. Why?........ It's a gull....................Chuck it some food and it will merrily come and perch on your head if you'll let it.
Well, as it happens, every other gull in the area came to check out my offerings of bread and crisps, but the Ring-bill was far too busy investigating a piece of floating polystyrene. Perhaps this has something to do with the plastic food that American companies get so fat on or, perhaps this gull associates polystyrene packaging with food...Hmmm.
Ring-billed Gulls are similar to our Common Gulls but are bigger, heavier billed, and seem to be more assertive in a mixed flock. Notice how this guy interacts with the other gulls.
Enjoy.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow

For the past couple of months, Calderdale has looked like this most of the time. Nestled into the Southern Pennines between Leeds and Manchester, we tend to have colder winters than the lowlands on either side.
This photo was taken over a month ago, but the thaw keeps being interrupted by brief periods of snowfall.
During this period, flocks of Fieldfares and Redwings have stripped the berries from almost all of the Rowans and Cottoneasters.
This time last year, the weather was milder, and we had plenty of berries left to support flocks of visiting Waxwings. At the moment, there have only been the occasional Waxwing siting as most of the flocks appear to be hanging around in Finland.