Stop the random slaughter of migrating birds in Malta

[FalconerKitty]

Malta is a major migratory point for birds between Africa and Europe. This is Europe's Hawk Mountain (www.hawkmountain.org) prior to protections for birds and raptors.

This slaughter is not hunting, it is a foolish and cruel shooting of birds with no purpose. It gives us hunters a really bad image worldwide. I know of a couple of raptor centers which are trying to educate and stop this unethical practice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0SgNMBvVoQ&feature=player_embedded#

View the video and sign the petition.

www.birdlifemalta.org

[Ravin R10 man]

I'd like to hear the other side of the story..very one sided video if you ask me. How do we know any of those birds shown were actually shot in malta? How do we know that they dont have a season? Lots of unanswerd questions about this video..looks like something some PETA member would put out.

[TN Bucknasty]

Perhaps we should take lessons from Malta and open a season on hawks, owls, and eagles here. I'm pretty fed up on them taking huge tolls on our quail and rabbit population.

Besides, they all taste like chicken. Oops, I wasn't supposed to say that was I?

[Jeramie]

I think some hunting may be warranted. Redtails around here have an overly booming population and are TRULY hurting the small game numbers. On any given day I can easily count 10-12 on my way home. They are everywhere.

I havent watched the video but I did want to pitch that in the pot...

[wtnhunt]

I think some hunting may be warranted. Redtails around here have an overly booming population and are TRULY hurting the small game numbers. On any given day I can easily count 10-12 on my way home. They are everywhere.

I havent watched the video but I did want to pitch that in the pot...

Yep, no shortage of redtails here either. See them pretty well everytime I am out hunting. Don't understand the protection of the buzzards either, they are becoming a nuisance here and they can actually be a problem for calves costing ranchers $$$.

Would imagine that if the governments where those birds live were concerned that the birds may be overhunted that they would evaluate it and make whatever changes were needed to protect that species. In todays liberal world, filled with rights activists, the likelihood of any government agency letting an animal be wiped out is really pretty unlikely, although sometimes I do wonder about the insurance companies influence on some states deer "management" practices.

[TN Bucknasty]

although sometimes I do wonder about the insurance companies influence on some states deer "management" practices.

Don't forget the farmers.

[m gardner]

I think if we found a few good recipes for owl or hawk it would be okay.

Mark

[FalconerKitty]

Look at the random slaughter that occurred at Hawk Mountain.

Edited February 12, 2010 by wtnhunt
topic can be discussed without all the links

[FalconerKitty]

The random slaughter of raptors is against the EU and there is a hunting season in Malta. These shootings are occurring OUTSIDE the legal season and is simply not enforced. The hunting community should be outraged that their image is tarnished in this manner. This abhorrent behavior is what gets hunting restricted and banned. I hunt, with terriers, hawks, guns, bows. Hawks are part of our ecosystem, there is a natural check and balance of prey-predator relationships.

In the US ALL migratory birds are protected, Here is a timely article written by writer Stephen Bodio that appeared in American Hunter Magazine.

I feel that this article is as timely now as it was when it first appeared in American Hunter magazine.

The Sport of Kings, by Stephen Bodio. From American Hunter Magazine March 1987, Vol. 15, No. 3

An English pointer is ranging ahead of three hunters in the prairie chicken country of New Mexico. Earlier they had watched as the big grouse dropped in the cutover field like ducks to a pond. But now the birds are scattered and invisible in the six-inch stubble. The pointer casts left, right, and skids to a stop, tail aloft, nose pointed rigidly ahead. The first hunter steps forward. But instead of continuing in for the flush, he stops and removes a leather cap from the head of a blue-gray bird perched on his left fist. The bird looks around, pulls up its feathers, shakes them down with a loud rattle, and bobs it’s head. It leaps into the air and cuts off at an angle to the dog, flying fast and low to the ground.

In a moment it turns and the hunters can that it is circling, gaining a little altitude with each sweep. They watch, check the pointer who is motionless as a stone dog, and peer into the stubble, willing the birds to remain in place.

The peregrine falcon, a bird once restricted to nobility, levels, beating and gliding in small circles perhaps a thousand feet above the dog.

And the hunter who released her runs forward, yelling. One of the others trains his binoculars on the falcon, as the third looks ahead to see the stubble come alive with forth flushing birds. As they erupt into the air with a startled gabble, the falcon turns and falls like a deadly missile, head first, wings folded, at a speed so great that is seems that she must smash herself against the ground. Instead, she levels out behind a prairie chicken and flies into it, so hard that feathers fly. The force of the strike impels them forward; for a moment they look like one huge, for-winged bird. Then the falcon tears loose and the grouse flutters down, dead in the air. The falcon climbs fifty feet straight up, turns over, and strikes again, hitting the fallen bird as it touches the earth. She rises once more, turns, and lands on her quarry.

Two of the hunters hang back as the first moves slowly in. The falcon bends over her prey, head low, a feather in her beak, instinctively protecting it against the intruder. Then training and recognition triumph, and she raises her head to follow his approach. He kneels and offers her a bit of meat. She yields gracefully, hops to the fist, and accepts the offering. After a moment he replaces the “hood”, puts the prairie chicken into a game bag hanging on his belt, and rejoins his companions.

What you have just seen is an example of modern falconry at it’s best. The so-called “Sport of Kings”, perhaps one of the oldest sports known to mankind, is alive and well in the twentieth-century America. Once restricted to the aristocrats of Europe and Asia, later kept alive by a handful of English gentlemen on the grouse moors of Scotland, falconry is now the obsession and devotion of over two thousand American from all walks of life. I know a millworker, several scientists, a veterinarian, two game wardens, a salesman, an oil geologist, and any number of school teachers to whom falconry is a way of life. They live from Idaho to Maine, Montana to Florida. Some go after snowshoe hares with goshawks an red-tailed hawks; some hunt starling and sparrows with tiny merlins an sharpshins. There are quail hunters who use Cooper’s hawks, and dedicated duck hunter with peregrine falcons. A lucky few even chase sage grouse with the great arctic gyrfalcon, worth a king’s ransom during the Crusades. All have one thin common: They are among the most dedicated of hunters.

Their dedication has been especially evident in the long struggle to restore the depleted peregrine falcon. Falconer have donated time, money, their own prized birds and expertise to this program – in fact, without their aid and dedication there might well be no peregrine falcons east of the Rocky Mountains. Now the return of the peregrine is one of the great “un-endangered species success stories of the late twentieth century. All is not rosy yet; the pesticides that impair the peregrine breeding persist south of the border, and certain populations must sill be monitored or supplemented with captive-bred young. Still it’s safe to say that the peregrine is in better shape naw tha in another time in the past twenty-five years, largely because of falconers’ efforts.

Although falconers have been active in American conservation and hunting circles for years – pioneer wildlife biologists Frank and John Craighead were falconers, and Aldo Leopold wrote enthusiastically of the sport – most hunters know little about it. An unnatural alliance of anti-falconry protectionists and linger anti-hawk sentiments in some quarters of the hunting community have often forced falconers to keep a low profile. Recently this has been changing in falconers’ efforts to conserve the bird have gotten more press, and as more sportsmen understand the role of predators as agents of balance than destroyers of game.

Modern American falconers use bid from three families or raptors or birds of prey: falcons, accipiters and buteos. All are considered “hawks” – falcons are simply hawks of the falcon family. They are long winged and brown eyes, open-country flyers that kill birds on the wing. I once wrote an article for the falconers magazine making tongue-in-cheek comparisons between various guns and their corresponding birds. In this article the peregrine falcon, the preferred bird of Europe’s gentry since the Middle Ages, became a fine English double – a Purdey or Holland & Holland. (What realm this places the gyrfalcon in, I can’t even guess!) All true falcons become fine doubles, beautiful and select, fo ruse on upland game birds and waterfowl. They tiny merlin or pigeon hawk, weighing in the neighborhood of eight ounces, is simply a twenty-eight gauge, and the common kestrel, even smaller and sued mainly by beginners, a .410.

The accipiter group contains the goshawks, the Cooper’s hawk and the sharp-shin. Although hunters once considered them “bad” hawks because of their predation on game, modern biologists believe that in most cases they have little effect on healthy populations. Only when habitat is disturbed or in the case of the goshawk, when the collapse of northern snowshoe hare sends and “eruption” starving first-year birds south, do they occasionally do some damage. These hawks are short-winged, able to fly under a canopy of trees, capable of turning on a dime. While the sharpshin is almost too small to be useful, the Cooper’s hawk is a deadly quail hawk, and the goshawk sort of a feathered Drilling, able to take almost anything from woodcock to hares.

The final large group contains the buteos or soaring hawks like the common red-tailed hawk, plus the eagles and the unique Harris’ hawk of the southwestern deserts. The red-tail is the twelve-gauge pump gun of falconry, common, hardy and plentiful. I’ve probably taken more head of game with a red-tail than any other species. Although it a little slow for pheasants, it is a world-class performer for rabbits and hares. Eagles are rarely used anymore, although the Germans still prefer them for hunting their enormous hares. In the hands of real masters they can take coyotes. If they any analogous gun, it must be the double rifle – heavy, hard kicking, rare and indispensable for a few pursuits.

The Harris, an odd bird in looks and habits, resembles buteos but has some of the speed of the accipiters. It can also be flown in groups, a unique characteristic that make more resemble a hound than any gun!

Modern falconry, especially American falconry, differs from the lad four thousand years of practice in that it has welcomed innovation. Although a German falconer bred the first hawks in captivity, a pair of peregrines, it was Americans who proved that this was not a fluke and have the breeding of birds of prey into a science. Now breeders can supply many of their own birds for sport, plus donate peregrines to the recovery program. What is more, some breeders are experimenting with hybrids falcons “breeds,” so it could even be said that falcons are becoming domesticated like man’s other hunting companion, the dog. American falconers have also invented sophisticated electronic tracking devices, no longer than cigarette filters, which their birds can wear on their legs and tails. These make the recovery of lost birds something better than chancy for the first time in history.

Although these innovations might point to a golden age of falconry, not everything is rosy. Like all field sports, falconry is often under attack from ill-informed or sentimental anti-hunters. I also suffers from an “image problem” with other hunters, who condemn predators because of long-held prejudices or who fear falconers will take “all the game”. The first prejudice can be changed by education. For those that hold the second, consider a few realities.

First, falconers are the most regulated hunters in the country. A prospective falconer first must find a sponsor from within the ranks of licensed falconers. Then he has to go through a two year apprentice stage, pass a rigorous written, and trap and train one of the common birds of prey. After this period, the falconer must undergo another test to graduate to a “general” license, at which point he is allowed to take young birds and fly any un-endangered species. Finally, after five years of general experience, he may elect to take still another test and to on to the “master” status, with its privilege of flying rarer species under certain conditions. In addition to these stringent rules, the falconer’s hawk house or “mews” must conform to exact Federal specifications and is open to on-the-spot inspection at any time. All this may seem fair, but is Federal law and is supported by falconers.

Second, falconry is the hardest way of taking any game. The daily hours devoted to bird care and inevitable difficulties of using a “weapon” with of mind of it’s own result in falconer taking much smaller bags than shooters do, even though some states allow them longer seasons. I have taken many ruffed grouse with a shotgun, but, although wild goshawks are certainly capable of catching them. I have never caught one with a hawk. A hawk hunting all day might finally surprise a grouse, but one disadvantaged by having to ride a man’s hand rarely has a chance. The sport of falconry resides in the challenge of overcoming its inherent difficulties.

In these days of threats to hunting, falconers and gun hunters must make common cause. Falconers often fear that uninformed shooters may kill a bird that has cost them a lot of effort and at least a year’s training time. Shooters unfamiliar with the sport may resent falconers’ imagined air of arrogance --- often the fear mentioned above – or blame them for taking too much game. Education can, and must, end these fears. In England fields-sports groups have decided that an attack on even the smallest segment of the sporting community is an attack on all, so that any attack on falconry or coursing or fox hunting will bring a response from more than just the tiny minorities that follow these endangered sports.

These days the sportsman can be encouraged by the emergence of those who hunt with falcon and with gun. Many members of the North American Falconers’ Association (NAFA), including myself and the president of the organization, have been NRA members for years. The editor of the NAFA Journal hunts elk and mule deer with a .338 and a .270, and birds with a Winchester Model 12. Prominent falconer Frank Bond managed the campaign for New Mexico’s pro-gun, pro-hunting Senator Pete Domenici. This kind of mutual interest and knowledge can only be good for both shooters and falconers.

If you don’t know a falconer, try to seek one out. Watching him work with his birds may give you a new insight on how things work “out there,” one that and only help your hunting. It will certainly thrill you. And remember, speak up the next time anybody knocks any kind of honest hunting, whether or not you practice it. As Benjamin Franklin sad at the down for the American Revolution, “We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall hand separately.”

[wtnhunt]

The random slaughter of raptors is against the EU and there is a hunting season in Malta. These shootings are occurring OUTSIDE the legal season and is simply not enforced. The hunting community should be outraged that their image is tarnished in this manner. This abhorrent behavior is what gets hunting restricted and banned. I hunt, with terriers, hawks, guns, bows. Hawks are part of our ecosystem, there is a natural check and balance of prey-predator relationships.

Not to try to speak for the entire community as a whole, but I would speculate most hunters do not view those engaging in this type activity as hunters at all, but rather as poachers. Big difference, I think you would agree.

It is great to educate folks(non hunters and anti's where possible) and help them learn that what you are posting about has absolutely nothing to do with hunters.

[FalconerKitty]

Hunting groups should be the most vocal when protesting unethical and illegal practices anywhere in the world If hunters stay silent, they are implying a compliance. That is how the non-hunting public will perceive us. We need to monitor our own ranks and expose those who do not follow sound hunting ethics and laws.

[stevebeilgard]

I think if we found a few good recipes for owl or hawk it would be okay.

Mark

cook them just like a bald eagle. they taste like chicken.

lol

[m gardner]

Falconer:

From what I've noticed from spending an inapprpriate amount of time outdoors, is that when you favor (protect) the animals at the top of the food chain the ones at the bottom suffer. That's the reason the open country mule deer and antelope have largely disappeared from areas I lived in Colorado. The Bald Eagles kill the fawns. Before we mostly lived in urban areas (and became enlightened) farmers and ranchers killed predators to stay in business.

If you can't understand that maybe an analogy from the unnatural world can bring understanding to an overeducated and muddled mind. As the government gets bigger and needs to raise taxes on individuals and small business to survive more individuals and businesses go bust, creating a shortfall of tax income for the top predator. They subsidize the banks "predator friends" and some large companies so that more small unsubsidized entities or "prey species" die off. Soon there is nothing left for them to eat. And only the government "predators" and a few weak and trembling prey are left. As Margaret Thatcher said "The only problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money". Same with favoring (protecting) predator species. Eventually you run out of prey.

Mark

[brad dryden]

Heck alot of them birds could have been dead how do they know they been shot? Like the one they picked up that was almost a skeleton left come on. I have been walking and found dead birds dosent mean they were shot.

[FalconerKitty]

I don't know about mule deer dynamics. I do know that when we let other invasive species graze (such as the horses and burros) which are decimating our grazing lands. The native ones suffer. Then there is the elephant in the room that at every single wildlife meeting I've seen, one lone person brings up (not me). That is human overpopulation. The speaker calls it the third rail, the 'elephant in the room'. I do know that whitetail deer are in HUGE numbers now. Eagles do take young animals. But, they don't kill in packs like coyotes (I've seen personally where coyotes killed 7 sheep in on a ranch in Wyoming in one evening). The coyotes did not take ONE BITE out of any sheep. They chased the sheep until they died of exhaustion and stress. Falconers are HUNTERS, we just hunt with a weapon of a different type.

Here is one thing about falconers. We realize that when we turn our birds out to hunt, we have entered the food chain. Our birds catch prey, and sometimes they are robbed or killed by another predator. I've had friends get their valuable falcons killed by a pirating golden eagle, bald eagle, great horned owl, red-tailed hawk, etc. You get the picture. We don't go around killing every other 'competing' raptor to keep the sky safe for our falcon. We mourn our losses and accept that as part of the cycle and move one. That is the way of falconry.

Read some of Stephen Bodio's work. He is a hunter, fine sporting arms enthusiast, falconer, outdoorsman and all around good guy. Also read Grays's Sporting Journal. The best outdoors writing today.

Edited February 14, 2010 by FalconerKitty

[Strut10]

Perhaps we should take lessons from Malta and open a season on hawks, owls, and eagles here. I'm pretty fed up on them taking huge tolls on our quail and rabbit population.

No "perhaps" about it in these parts. Something needs done soon or what little small game we have left will be gone.

The songbird population has also been plummeting..........just coincidentaly (yep, uh-huh) starting in the early 1970's, when the avian predators got carte blanche protection.

Whadda ya suppose would happen if we banned the harvest on all four-legged predators in the same way?? Nobody would ever think of protecting foxes, coyotes, raccoons, etc. But it's exactly the same thing.

Maybe I'll start an online petition to get something like the Maltese falcon season going stateside.

[FalconerKitty]

Our bird and small populations are down due to several factors. Human encroachment on their nesting habitats, fragmentation of forests for deep forest nesting birds, where the cowbirds are now destroying their nests. (human overpopulation again) along with outdoor and feral cats that come alone with neighborhoods. FYI: there are now the misguided and I feel criminal negligence in the formation of feral cat colonies supported by people like Alley Cat Allies. www.alleycatallies.org. What a waste of money, and human resources, for an invasive, destructive, non-native predator!!!!

The Cats Indoors Program by the American Bird Conservancy is an excellent, well-thought out program (www.abcbirds.org).

[m gardner]

I've seen projects like the reintroduction of pine martins (in a nameless state) nearly fail because they ate all the food supply, which is varying hares in most places. When the hares were gone the fish and game (we believe) actually put out feeding stations so they would not die off. So the hares nearly disappeared. Feeding the hares and killing the martins would have been a better solution. You always support the bottom of the structure not the top. Reintroducing and/or protecting the species at the top is foolish.

Mark

[Jeramie]

You always support the bottom of the structure not the top.

Makes perfect sense. If the bottom thrives so does the top.

I can attest that our small game numbers are down due to hawks, crow, and coyote. Oklahoma is NOT densely populated. We use to have incredible bob white quail numbers as well as cotton tail rabbit.

While we still have a fair number of cotton tail the bob white population has taken a stark dive. Cats aren't near the issue they would be in other places either.

The re-introduction of Redtail Hawks in our area has made a HUGE difference in the small game population. They have very little threat for survival yet (by sheer numbers) they have really hurt the native small game population. They may be just as important as any other creature but in moderation. If left un-checked they will do far more damage than good.....

[FalconerKitty]

Here is a statement from OK Wildlife:

http://www.wildlifedepartment.com/upland.htm

[Jeramie]

Here is a statement from OK Wildlife:

http://www.wildlifedepartment.com/upland.htm

For western Oklahoma that is true. That however, is not state wide. The panhandle area of the state has tons of Blue and Bobwhite quail as well as pheasant. However, their redtail population isnt anywhere near what ours is either. For the most part the western side of the state (around the panhandle) is treeless, literally. Birds can thrive out there because its mainly crop and very few predators.

However, from Oklahoma City to the East we have densly populated forest and cover. Hawks thrive in this area. The state may have stated we have good numbers as a state but the population is mainly west. Anyone who comes to hunt quail in Oklahoma almost certinally ends up west. That is a well known fact to bird hunters...

[TN Bucknasty]

Here is a statement from OK Wildlife:

http://www.wildlifedepartment.com/upland.htm

Here's another from an Oklahoma citizen:

2tsp salt

2tsp pepper

1 cup of flour

1 pre-boiled hawk breast

Coat the breast in flour and fry in a skillet until golden brown. Repeat this process until small game populations recover.

[FalconerKitty]

Here is another study of the result of diets by casting analysis of red-tailed hawks.

http://bss.sfsu.edu/geog/bholzman/courses/Fall00Projects/redtailedhawk.html

[FalconerKitty]

Another reason for the rapid growth of ground predators is the falling of fur prices, hence the decline of trapping, or the banning of trapping altogether in many states. I support trapping, my neighbors in Maryland used to trap about 70-100 fox per year. But they stopped when the fur prices plummeted. They kept several foxes alive to collect and sell the urine. My dog got caught in a leg hold trap once. He was unhurt when released. My free-ranging cat also got caught in a leg hold trap. The trapper was kind enough to bring her to me, I did not get mad at him. I thanked him for bringing her to me. It was my choice to let my cat roam, and the consequences of her roaming free were mine. If I ever get another cat, I would not let it roam unattended after now learning how destructive free-range cats are to our small wildlife populations.

Don't blame the hawks, blame the rapid growth of human populations, the spread of the cats, dogs, coyotes, raccoons,opossums, skunks, fisher cats and other ground mammals, that come along with the spread of suburban neighborhoods.

Also, show me a scientific study that supports your point of view. For some reason, you have a pathological hatred of hawks. When you should be thinking like a wildlife manager, removing the non-natives first then, worry about population dynamics of your favorite species. Manage brush piles, do controlled burns, you will find that quail will come back and rabbits will thrive.

www.quailrestoration.com

[Jeramie]

Another reason for the rapid growth of ground predators is the falling of fur prices, hence the decline of trapping, or the banning of trapping altogether in many states. I support trapping, my neighbors in Maryland used to trap about 70-100 fox per year. But they stopped when the fur prices plummeted.

This I agree with 100%. Coyote, fox, coon, etc hunting use to be very popular around here. It no longer is and that no doubt has a negative impact on small game.

Also, show me a scientific study that supports your point of view. For some reason, you have a pathological hatred of hawks. When you should be thinking like a wildlife manager, removing the non-natives first then, worry about population dynamics of your favorite species. Manage brush piles, do controlled burns, you will find that quail will come back and rabbits will thrive.

www.quailrestoration.com

Actually I dont have a pathological hatred of hawks. I think they are beautiful birds in moderation like everything else and have a place in our natural system. However, when I can literally count 6-10 on a daily drive home you cant convince me they arent having a negative impact on small game population. Those numbers are visible from the highway. There is no telling the numbers not visible from a major highway.

As far as Encroachment to the quail habitat, again, Oklahoma isnt nearly as populated as many other states. Quail actually have prime habitat due to farm practices (food sources, cover, etc.). A lot farming practices are actually condusive to the quail and rabbit population. Non-native species are definately a problem but in the end they are not entirely to blame and id bet you dollars to donuts the redtail numbers rival "domestic cat" numbers in some areas of NE Oklahoma.