[WATCH] Spring hunting | BirdLife watches the hunters

Shots could be heard all over the Safi area, just metres away from the MIA runway, early Monday morning at 6:30am, with not only turtle dove and quail being targeted.

BirdLife monitors are on the lookout for injured marsh harriers and kestrels and such birds of prey who will fall victim to this year's spring hunting season, opened by the Maltese government in derogation of the EU's Birds Directive which bans trapping and hunting in spring.

This year's 9,500 hunters, who on the strength of an electoral promise by Labour this year won't pay  a €50 licence fee or wear visible yellow armbands to that effect, have a quota of 11,000 trutle dove and 5,000 quail.

They are supposed to send an SMS to the Malta Environment and Planning Authority every time they catch a bird, but BirdLife will be recording data around the island tallying the number of shots heard in specific regions, and also keep a record of bird migration.

Nicholas Barbara, BirdLife Malta conservation manager, says this year's excesses from illegal or unlicensed hunters - now rendered 'invisible' by not being given a yellow armband to wear - may get worse.

Video by Ray Attard