Malta Raptor Camp 2012

I'm back from 9 days at BirdLife Malta Raptor Camp 2012, my 4th trip out there to help the fight against illegal hunting. As usual, I had a great time, with some quality birding alongside legendary people.

I felt more than ever that our presence was allowing birds to pass through the island unharmed, as the sight of BirdLife teams acted as a deterrent to hunters fearful that they might get caught. Although I saw frequent illegal activity, I only saw one protected bird shot down, a Little Egret at Delimara, in a horrendous 'deja-vu' of last year.

However, I saw more birds with gunshot injuries than I have before (suggesting continues hunting in the areas we couldn't cover), and there were many incidents seen by other teams, Honey Buzzards, Kestrels, Bee-eaters and Marsh Harriers were shot at regularly, illegal electronic lures were used routinely ( I saw one group of hunters trying to lure down a passing Grey Heron!), and so far 21 dead or injured protected species have been handed in to BirdLife by the Maltese public.

Here's a few photos, not a great batch as I was too busy trying to keep an eye on things......

Little Egrets

Marsh Harrier juvenile 

Marsh Harrier with shot damaged wing, a frequent sight

Blue Rock Thrush- National Bird of Malta (since they shot all the Maltese Falcons)

Montagu's Harrier, within the safety of the airport perimeter

Night Herons, part of a flock of 11 sensibly migrating after sunset

Osprey and Peregrine

Osprey, this one was shot at shortly afterwards, fortunately the bastards missed

Swallow, hideously shot damaged. This bird spent the whole afternoon on the wires above our watchpoint, almost as if it knew it would be safe with us. A few times it made pathetic attempts to fly off but always returned as it struggled to make any distance, there's no way this will continue it's migration, and will be dead by now, either by starvation, or some other fucker finishing it off. One of the saddest sights I've ever seen

Wryneck at Ghadira reserve, fenced and gated to keep hunters out

Bee-eater

Black Kite with shot damaged primaries

I spent my first night on the island watching over 2 roosting Black Storks, we think that they made it off the island, but have information that the other 2 they arrived with were shot. 

4 more Black Storks a few days later, these roosted on the lawless island of Gozo, we don't know their fate

Most nights hundreds, if not thousands of Yellow Wagtails came in to roost in reedbeds, and often the flocks included several Black-headed Wagtails, easily picked out by call

Honey Buzzards were the stars of the show, and generally the most  frequent large raptor, mostly juvenile, in  every possible plumage, and often giving stunning close views

For more similar photos, check out my album from Raptor Camp last year on Facebook

As usual, i'll end by telling how you can help. Joining a camp next year is of course one way, but if you can't make it, how about joining BirdLife Malta. They desperately need all the funding they can get ,and every extra member gives them more weight when lobbying the Maltese government and the E.U. Remember, these are 'our' birds being shot at here.

Migration Magic

It doesn't always take some crippling rare, or a massive fall to make you appreciate the wonder of migration, more subtle little moments can be just as special. This evening I was having a bit of a seawatch from the beach, not classic conditions for it I know, it was as much about enjoying the sunset as anything else, i've not got much longer left on The Point, and I want to soak it up as much as I can.
Anyway, I wasn't seeing a whole lot, and was thinking of walking back along the beach to get back for dinner, when I picked up a small bird waaaay out over the water. It was clearly a solitary passerine, bounding in low over the waves on it's way towards The Point, and I kept following it in the scope hoping to get an i.d on it as it flew by. It kept coming in a beeline right towards me, still hugging the waves, at one point it even had to jink up and out of the way as a breaker almost caught it, I was getting worried that it might not even make it. I was willing it on the last few hundred metres and to my astonishment, it kept coming right in, over the surf, up the beach, and plonked down practically at my feet! Looking through the scope I swear I could see it's little chest beating as its heart pounded from the effort. I slowly reached for the camera, cautious not to scare it from its rest and clicked away, though the light was awful. After a few minutes it began chasing and catching a few micro moths that were starting to come out of the grass, and then flipped off over the dunes, presumably to find some more substantial cover in which to roost. Pure and simple Point magic.

The bird resting on the shingle, fresh in off the North Sea

A bit more active after a short recovery period.

The pale tips to the greater coverts age this as a first winter bird (as does the buffy tip to two of the uppertail coverts, first time i've noticed this in the field). It's absolutely mind-blowing to think that this bird, only a few months old has just flown across the North Sea, maybe all the way from Norway, totally unguided, except by tuition, and that this is only the beginning of its journey South. And then to think that this is happening everywhere right now, birds of so many species, all over the world, pulling crazy stunts like that as if it was totally normal, I have so much respect for these creatures, they're sooo flipping tough its unreal!

Which brings me to my next subject, fuckwit hunters who think they have some god given right to end the life of something so amazing, for the sake of a stuffed trophy, a small meal, or simply just for the hell of it. Hence i'm off to Malta on Wednesday for Raptor Camp 2012, doing my bit to stem the slaughter. I was going to moan and gripe about my journey there, having to leave here tomorrow afternoon, a 4 hour train, and then a night in Stansted Airport (my 3rd there this year) in order to get a flight Weds morning and not getting to Malta til nearly 24 hours after leaving The Point. But I won't moan and gripe, that young Spot Fly has had a much harder time of it, making my travels look like an absolute cakewalk in comparison.

So instead, here's some nice pictures of a Grey Plover from this morning

And a skein of Pink-footed Goose, part of the flood currently arriving in Norfolk from breeding grounds in Iceland, another awesome migration story for another day.

Peaceful day, and painful memories

After missing out on early morning Long-tailed Skuas and a Great Shearwater on the 26th, i've been seawatching from dawn every day since, and unsurprisingly given the south-westers, seen diddly squat. Still, you've got to be in it win it, and on the 26th I was most definitely out of it! I'll be out again tommorrow, but Friday morning is the interesting looking day if the forecast holds true, redemption time!

Even when you see nothing on an early seawatch it's usually worth the effort, sharing the beach at sunrise with no-one other than a baby Common Seal is a pretty special way to start the day.

It rained for most of the day and there were very few birds about, and with the daily jobs done I could almost feel boredom approaching this evening, so decided to take a look at The Point from a different angle and take the row boat for a spin around the saltmarsh as the tide came in. Drifting quietly up the creeks was certainly a change from the usual struggle on foot, trying to stay upright in the mud.

By the time I was back to the landing ridge the rain had stopped and the sun was out, the harbour looking an absolute picture as always, though as usual, my non-existent landscape photography skills do it no justice at all.

The casual bird photography highlights of the day:

Hobby chasing pipits around the saltmarsh

                                                                     Mutant Knot (look closely)

                                                                   Normal Knot

The day we had the Greenish I also came across this Little Egret feeding in Pinchen's Creek at Low Tide, this is the first time since then that i've found the time to put the photos up. Not particularly sharp or anything, but birds like this provide the aesthetics for themselves.

I often feel that we take Little Egrets for granted now that they're such a frequent sight in the UK, but take a second to stop and watch one, and remind yourself what absolute stunners they are.

In stark contrast to the grace of the above bird, this one was shot down in front of me on Malta last autumn

The hunter had scarpered by the time that the under-resourced police arrived, and we later found out the bird died on it's way to the vets. Join BirdLife Malta to help stop this sort of shit

Raptor Camp 2012 dates!

Birdlife Malta have announced the dates for this years Raptor Camp, details can be found here. 

Life on The Point is much the same as before, chicks are growing up doing well which is great to witness, but being the middle of summer, migration has pretty much ground to  halt except for a bit of wader passage, roll on August!

Arctic Tern chicks

Fledged Black-headed Gulls

Curlew (and 1 Whimbrel at the end( on their way through

Adult and juvenile Meadow Pipit

Pied Wagtail on our gas cylinder cage

Terns fishing off the beach one stormy evening

Disheveled

I'm recently back from my third trip to Malta for the bird protection camps run by Birdlife Malta. Yet again I had a superbly fulfilling time out in the field reording bird migration, deterring illegal shooting of protected birds, monitoring the 'legal' hunting season on Turtle Dove and Quail (both in decline in Europe) alongisde some great people. I was only on the island for a week and migration during that time was slow so I didn't see a whole lot of migrants, particularly raptors, and consequently saw no serious incindents. Here's a few photos from the week, taken before my lens suffered some significant, but hopefully repairable damage as I vaulted a wall after my lifer male Collared Flycatcher!

Doing what it says on the tin

Malta tick!! Cattle Egret at Salini

Stunning dark Eleonora's Falcon

Gull-billed Tern, also in Salini, as was the Collared Flycatcher. Strange that all 3 species that were new for my Malta list were all in a 'strictly no-hunting' zone.

Hobby

Black-winged Stilt. These birds bred in Malta for the first time last year at the wonderful Ghadira Nature Reserve.

I accompanied a Times of Malta journalist on one of our morning shifts, his article is worth a read here.

Definitely worth a watch is this fantastic video by Amanda Rogers, filmed partly during last years Raptor Camp, and gives a great overall view of the situation, and is beautifully filmed and edited too.

Malta Photos

A tad belated I know, but here's a few pictures from Birdlife Malta Raptor Camp 2011. Since returning from the camp i've been meaning to write a piece detailing my experiences, but to be honest, it's been a bit of a struggle coming to terms with the contrasting emotions over the fortnight. I'm not the most fluid of writers at the best of times and writing a report of that crazy two weeks has been a series of aborted attempts.

For those of you not familiar with Talking Naturally, you really need to take a listen to this podcast with Ceri Levy, which goes a long way to explaining the situation out there. The quote that sums it up best for me is 'Malta messes with yer head'!

Little Egret, shot down in front of us on the first day of camp

Purple Heron

Mixed heron flock

Dotterel in a cage for use as decoy bird. We called the police but the trapper legged it

HB's

Osprey over Buskett

Bee-eater, during the first few days we saw many hundreds of these cracking birds, often hawking just metres from us. These birds are often shot at.

More Honey Buzzards

This juv Honey Buzzard arrived low over us at Buskett one afternoon. The damaged primary is very typical of shotgun damage, and the wet breast feathers suggest that it may have been shot into the sea recently

To our horror it was then shot down again, it fell into a wooded area before rising flying weakly off. We didn't fancy its chances of survival after such an ordeal but wow, what an effort!

Black Kite

Early one morning, this Eleonora's Falcon gave us fantastic views at Girgenti, only the second one the species i've ever seen following a brief flyover 2 days previous

4 days later, a local birder witnessed the same bird being shot out of a tree by a local birder, and he managed to recover the body of the dead bird. Words just can't explain the feeling when something like that happens.