A message from Birdlife
Some hoopoes this year, but I've seen no golden orioles yet
27th April 2010
Dear Mrs. Caruana Galizia,
We appreciate your raising the attack on two of BirdLife Malta volunteers that happened on Sunday the 18th April in Dingli.
While expressing our gratitude we would like to draw your attention to the facts of the matter.
Contrary to allegations made by the aggressors, the volunteers were not trespassing.
They were walking on a country lane – the same lane that the aggressors used to drive up to our volunteers and launch an assault without warning.
The volunteers were not trampling in a field and there was no damage to crops. The volunteers were standing on grass at the edge of a country lane when they were attacked.
The facts are all clearly visible in the footage that remains online on the BirdlLife Malta web site (www.birdlifemalta.org).
The Sunday incident is the last clip in the video. Below is a detailed account of what happened.
After hearing several gunshots from the area in Dingli, a BirdLife Spring Watch team consisting of four people stopped at the junction of a country lane. Two volunteers got out off the car and walked along a country lane to check the poachers while the others who remained in the car drove down the other road.
The volunteers who walked down the country lane came to a dead end and walked back along the same country lane. As they did so, a white pick up truck drove towards them; two men got out and immediately attacked them without warning. As can be heard in the video of the assault, they wanted the camera.
While one of the volunteers was being punched, he lost grip of the camera, which fell into the surrounding shrubs. As the aggressors’ attention was diverted to the fallen camera, the volunteers had the chance to get away. The aggressors followed them, shouting insults and threats.
The camera was then taken by one of the aggressors, and with it, the evidence of what had just happened.
Meanwhile, two other members of the BirdLife team who heard the shouting came to the other end of the road in their car to pick up their friends. They had their own camera and managed to record the faces of the aggressors on that camera as they approached the vehicle (in the footage, this is the frame immediately following the beating, showing the men approach the car). The team drove off to avoid confrontation.
At this point, the hunters had one camera (evidence) in their hand, but realized that another camera had got their faces. They decided to hand over the camera to the police, but deleted the footage first. The camera then was given to BirdLife by the police. Through O&O Media Recovery (software), the footage was recovered by BirdLife.
It revealed that when the hunters got into their car, the BirdLife camera was still on. They can be heard discussing whether the BirdLife volunteers took the truck’s license number and they mention hiding a shotgun. They are also heard deciding to go to police and tell them the volunteers were trespassing.
At the end of the footage a young person is heard saying he could delete the footage for them. The footage showing the full version of the incident was handed over to the CID police.
The matter is now in the hands of the police and the judiciary.
We thank you for your kind attention to the matter. Should you require any further clarification or information, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Yours sincerely,
Geoffrey Saliba
Campaign coordinator
BirdLife Malta
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Last time you advised me not to mention that the orioles are around so I’m not.
[Daphne – I check the mulberry tree every day, to no avail.]
Daphne, check the tree trunk for holes too: there’s a recently-introduced wood borer (a beetle) which has decimated mulberry trees all over Malta.
[Daphne – Is there any chemical that can be used against it?]
Best way is to find the holes where the larvae live and insert a metal wire to kill them. The Agriculture Dept. has published a Powerpoint: http://agric.gov.mt/Downloads/seminars/seminar_10_june/new_pests_and_diseases.pdf
(mulberry insect is on slides 17-22)
If this infestation is handled in the same way as the palm weevil then we can bid good bye to our mulberries… I had first hand experience of the inefficiency and ignorance of the department which handled the red palm weevil and I cannot but say they are doing everything possible to help the weevil rather than our palm trees.
I noticed that our palm tree core was starting to wilt and quickly suspected that we had the weevel – you do not need to be particularly brilliant to notice. I called in the department to find out what I can do. I told them that checking this tree was important because there were several others in the vicinity which looked healthy and it would be a pity if others were to suffer the same fate. This was around June last year. They told me they will send someone and that in the meantime i should spray the tree with the appropriate insecticide. I told them to tell me what insecticide I should buy and they told me that they cannot give me that information because of unfair competition – instead of giving me the whole list.
I told them this was stupid and they told me they would send me an e-mail with the chemical properties that the insecticide should have. Apart from the fact that the e-mail never arrived i could imagine Ganni ta’ Garaffa getting an e-mail with the chemical properties of the insecticide… Anyway, I assumed that the next day i would find the department’s representative behind our door asking to see the palm tree. A week later i was still waiting. by then it was very clear that the weevil was the culprit and the department his accomplice. I went to a garden shop and bought a weevil spray and over the next couple of weeks drenched the tree repeatedly. In the meantime – and i think this is important for those who want to save their trees – I supported the core of the tree (this is where the new shoots sprout) with a stick. the reason is that once the core is ruined the tree will inevitably die. I managed to save the tree but despite and not with the help of the department.
Funnily or sadly, in December the department representative came around and told us our tree was doing well. i felt like kicking him.
When I called the department to give them a piece of my mind they told me they were very busy because the problem was widespread. this was 3-4 weeks after I first reported my tree. I told them that if they had one person who saw 5 trees a day (1 every hour) in 3 weeks he should have seen 75 trees, I told them that if they had two they would have seen 150, could it be that so many trees were being infested daily? they obviously told me that was simplistic…
Since then I have seen countless other palm trees succumb to the weevil. In Gharghur another two beautiful ones have gone.
The moral of the story. Forget the department and do it yourself.
[Daphne – Exactly. You’re a grown-up. Why didn’t you think of that before?]
The moral of the story. Forget the department and do it yourself. [Daphne – Exactly. You’re a grown-up. Why didn’t you think of that before?]
The Prime Minister has been asking why farmers are not applying for the EU funds. Claud is showing the tip of the iceberg. Surely George Pullicino would not tell him that the civil servants at Ghammieri are a bunch of inefficient scarecrows.
Incredible! Anyone ready to bet that, if ever the Police decide to take to court these villains, this will take several years and eventually, if at all, be given the now-standard suspended sentence. Isn’t it about time this country gets rid of these neanderthals, and bans them outrightly from ever being allowed to hunt (that is until total ban comes in force anyway)? BirdLife people should not be risking their life and property to protect our environment. As to the cowardly vandalism on the tree grove at Mellieha, isn’t it clear as to who would want to seek revenge by further damaging the environment?
Mela ha nirrakkuntalkom storja istruttiva. Il-Malta Gun Club johrog il-licenzji ghall-armi tan-nar f’Malta. Biex tinhariglek licenzja, qabel biss ma tigi vetted mill-pulizija/whatever, jaghmlulek barrage ta’ tests psikologici, li ma jmorrux jaghtu firearms licence lil xi skwilibrat.
Issa dawn il-‘kaccaturi’ nassumi ghandhom licenzja ghas-senter. U rajtu kemm ghandhom profil psikologiku stabbli….
Moral tal-istorja: F’Malta, ir-regoli japplikaw biss ghall-gwejjed. Min hu prepotenti, jaghmel li jrid.
Le. Ghandek zball. Ir-regolamenti rigwardanti l-ghoti tal-licenzi tas- snieter huma ferm inqas ezigenti minn dawk – nghidu ahna – tar-rivoltelli jew SMGs. Inqas burokrazija, iktar fast-track, u ejja ha mmorru nisplodu ras fagjan!
CLACK CLACK…POOMWALL!
Ara naqtghuha fil-qasir: tal-Birdlife ‘xogholhom’ josservaw l-ghasafar u mhux jippuxtjaw lil min jahsbu li qed jikser il-ligi ; il-bdiewa ghandhom jahdmu r-raba’ mhux imorru l-ghalqa jonsbu jeww ghall-kacca; u ‘l min hu dilettant imur igawdi n-natura ihalluh bil-kwiet.
Dejjaqtuna sal-ponta ta’ mnehirna!
L-ahhar wahda li smajt hi ta’ wiehed mis-Siggiewi li kien l-ghalqa mehdi jnaqqi l-basal, mar pulizija fuqu u saqsieh “fejn hbejtu s-senter”…”id-dar qieghed” wiegbu l-bidwi; “imxi id-dar halli narah!”.
Darba gejt aggredit minn “bidwi” l-Imgarr, li akkuzani li sraqtlu l-frott. Segwieni bil-pickup fuq triq pubblika.
Il-pulizija qed jaghtuhom naqra fastidju? Halluhom ha jduqu ftit mill-barbarizmu taghhom. Anzi nispera li l-pulizija kellu kelb enormi cross-breed ta’ pitbull u dobermann u Cerberu nnifsu, li tela’ mat-testikoli tal-bidwi. Huma mhux hekk iharrguhom biex jaghmlu?
P.S. Mordechai Vanunu, f’Malta lanqas slingshot ma tista’ timporta, please note. Imbaghad, kif ghedt int, permess ghal senter jaghtuh lil kull min jissodisfa r-requirements ta’ :
1) zaqq
2) T-shirt issikkat
3) dagha fahxi
4) diskors dwar deliiiiizju
5) tendenza ta’ vjolenza bla razan.
Dan il-huffing and puffing fuq konservazzjoni u protezzjoni tal-fauna ghandu jinqata’. Minflok, id-90% tal-popolazzjoni li mhix kaccatur ghandha tinghata assault rifle u 5000 round ta’ ammunition kull wiehed. Imbaghad naraw min jaghmel l-arja.
Hemm avukati, bankiera, negozjanti, ghalliema, nurses, tobba u x’naf jien li huma kemm kaccaturi kif ukoll nies edukati li kull ma jinterasshom li il-Gvern izomm il-weghdi fuq weghdi li ghamel.
La jdejqu n-nies u lanqas jiksru l-ligi.
.
Avukat u bankier u tabib jista’ jkollu zaqq, le?
There is no such thing as sustainable hunting. The only way in nature is for the hunter to die out, or his numbers diminish, when there is lack of prey, and for the hunted to increase in numbers when there is no hunter. Then the circle starts over, but always with the hunter being fully dependent on its prey for living.
In nature, there are no guns.
not even buildings,chimneys,huge structures,emmisions,rubbish that people leave behind and much more but you always see that guns are worst damaging environment!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’m tired of this issue, and I don’t know who to feel sorry for anymore – the birds for being killed whilst on their daily lives? The hunters who were promised something that was never returned – i.e. made fun of? The bird trappers, who were silent all the way but they are the ones suffering the most?
Ma nafx – this issue is getting exhausted and the original point, i.e. illegal hunting and the poor birds, is not the point anymore – now it’s the government having made fun of hunters and bird trappers – and i can’t keep up anymore!
Well done to BirdLife, yes, but give farmers, hunters and trappers a break too. They do sort of have an itsy bitsy point here!
This morning I woke up at 05.45 to the sound of gunshots from Delimara. This has been happening for the past 3 weeks. By 07.00 the poachers must have had enough and the shooting stopped. I am very proud to be a member of BirdLife Malta.
If the bird-killers and trappers were not so arrogant and bullying, then perhaps one could start to talk some sense.
L-ahwa issa sirt naf illi Sharon Ellul Bonici, dik li issa lahqet esperta fil-kacca, sejra tindies mal-kaccaturi, forsi ma tafx kif fl-ahhar tilhaq xi membru tal-parliament jew xi membru ta’ xi haga ohra.
Tghid ma tmurx b`xi skarf tal-chavs.
Miskina ser thalli il-familja f’ Mother’s Day biex tmur tiltaqa maghhom.
claude schiberras –
Jien kelli inkontru maghhom tal-plant health department. Mela biex tkun taf dawk ma jiehdux azzjoni meta is-sigra tkun go art privata ghax ma taqax taht il-kompitu taghhom.
Wara li issir epidemija forsi jindenjaw ruhom u jibghatu tal-parks biex inehhuha u alla jbierek fil-hamrija ihallu ghexieren ta’ larvae.
Jien kelli ix-xorti nara operazzjoni ta’ tnehhijja ta’ sigra tal-palm u wara li telqu gbart xi ftit blalen fejn kien hemm id-dudu ser ifaqqas go fiha.
Naqbel mieghek meta ghidt illi iktar jipprotegu lil-bumunqar ahmar milli lis-sigra.
L-aqwa li xi kulltant tidher Marisa Gatt (il-kap tal-PHD) u tghidlina kemm id-dipartiment taghha qed jahdem. Dan hu kaz iehor kemm ma hawnx dixxiplina.