Eight illegal bird trapping sites found in CABS survey flight

Eight illegal bird trapping installations for the capture of protected birds have been reported to the police, the CABS volunteer group said on Wednesday.

The sites were photographed during a survey flight conducted last week, the organisation said.

The group issued pictures of artificial ponds surrounded by large clap-nets and equipped with plastic decoy birds used to lure and trap protected curlews, sandpipers and other wading birds.

The sites were spotted in the fields between Rabat and Dingli, the Misraħ Strejnu area, St. Thomas Bay and near the Xrobb l-Għaġin nature park in Delimara, where a flamingo was recently found dead.

The installations were well hidden behind a labyrinth of rubble walls and trees and therefore could not be readily seen from ground level.

Four of the  eight sites had also been reported to the police in July 2019, August 2018 and August 2017.

[attach id=915270 size="large" align="left" type="image"]Another site found during the survey flight. [/attach]

“The fact that in all these years, despite numerous reports and overwhelming evidence provided by CABS, the police have not been able to stop the poachers operating these notorious sites, is a damning...