Malta Massacre On Migration

---

Inspired by Chris Packham's video diary of the illegal slaughter of migratory birds in Malta I sent an e-mail on April 22nd to my south east MEP's who are:



Sharon Bowles MEP, Marta Andreasen MEP, Nigel Farage MEP, Peter Skinner MEP, Richard Ashworth MEP, Keith Taylor MEP

I decided to tailor my e-mail to ensure that it was received by them as I had read that using a prepared e-mail script may be treated as spam.

On May 1st, I received the following response from Catherine Bearder.

Dear Mr Young,

Thank you for your email about the appalling hunting of wild birds in Malta.

As a committed animal welfare campaigner, President of the Green Lib Dems and member of the Welfare and Conservation of Animals, I share your concerns and have done so for many years.

In anticipation of the spring hunting season, I along with 32 other Euro MPs jointly lobbied the European Commission to ensure that the Commission took enforcement action against this continued breach of the European Union's Birds Directive.  This supported BirdLife International's call for action.

Europe's rich diversity of over 500 wild bird species has been facing severe threats for a long time.  The EU Birds Directive was adopted unanimously by the Member States as a response to increasing concern about the decline in Europe's wild bird populations resulting from pollution and loss of habitats, amongst other issues.  The purpose of the Directive is to protect migratory birds from being hunted during the crucial spring stage of their life cycle.

Malta is currently the only Member State to still have a recreational spring hunting season and this is achieved by a derogation and exception from the Directive.  However, it is clear Malta is not even abiding by their exception, let alone the full Directive.

This campaign has now been stepped up and is getting increased publicly in the UK thanks to BBC Radio 4 and the presenter Chris Packman.  I requested an urgent meeting with the Commissioner for the Environment, and followed up that request with a letter signed by 43 other Euro MPs.

The Commission is taking action against Malta following the killing of migrating birds, particularly in defence of turtle doves and quail birds.

The magnitude of penalties possible under Maltese legislation has doubled over the past few years and they are setting up a specialised Wildlife Crime Unit.  However, much more action needs to be taken urgently.

Thank you again for taking the time to contact me.  If re-elected, I look forward to continuing to work closely with BirdLife Malta and other groups to stamp out this barbaric targeting of turtle doves and quail birds.  I know that the rest of the Lib Dem team are also committed to this.

This is one of the many environmental issues I have campaigned on since being elected five years ago, if you would like me to keep you updated on this and similar issues please let me know.  I hope this response is helpful and reassuring, please feel free to contact me again about this or any other European matter.

Yours sincerely,

Catherine Bearder MEP

Liberal Democrat member of the European Parliament for the South East of England Constituency Office

27 Park End Street

Oxford

OX1 1HU

+44 1865 249838

www.bearder.eu

March Round Up

Here we are at the end of March, my last day as an I.T. Manager working for Barclays Bank is over and now that i'm home it feels odd knowing that i'm no longer employed and the rest of my life is ahead of me. My transition in becoming part of the world of ecology has taken a positive turn though in that i've managed to secure some bird survey work for a consultancy based in Essex and an update of progress there will hopefully be in April.

So what has been happening in March? Well it is difficult to believe that March has come to an end already. I put my name down to volunteer for the Kent Wildlife Trust and have got involved in helping them monitor for American Mink in the North Kent Marshes. The Trust are placing around 50 mink rafts at various sites in the marshes and I helped to build and locate 5 of them in coldharbour marshes just north of Sittingbourne. The raft is made of recycled plastics and within the tunnel is placed a basket containing a sponge and clay on top. The basket fits into a hole in the plastic allowing it to sit in the water where the sponge absorbs water which then keeps the clay moist. A mink being inquisitive is likely to inspect the tunnel and leave its footprints in the clay.

 

My first mink raft deployed and god bless all who sail in her! Don't like the colour of that water though, yuk!

 The knot of choice to keep the raft in place is the bowline, a tricky knot to tie.

After a mornings raft deploying I moved onto Elmley, no longer an RSPB reserve but still looking fantastic all the same. I saw at least 6 hares along the track up to the old farmhouse which holds many a good memory for me as I used to help out with the WEBS counts here and quite often sat in the kitchen enjoying a cuppa before heading out for the count.

March was a very dry month with plenty of sunny days which brought out quite a few bumblebees and butterflies. This site near to Darenth was alive with early queen bumblebee species, mainly Bombus terrestris or buff-tailed bumblebee who were actively looking for nest sites in the rough grass habitat which is ideal for them.

Lisa and I also visited Whalefest which is held in Brighton and is the cetacean equivalent of birdfair although much smaller but in years to come could be as big.

This lady, all the way from Canada, was wandering around in a dress of plastic bags to demonstrate the number of plastic bags used by 1 shopper in a year, none of which will bio-degrade.

One of the main themes for this year's Whalefest was cetaceans in captivity and a display of crosses, one for each cetacean that has died in captivity, provided a stark representation of the terrible and unnecessary loss.

 Back to the mink rafts two weeks later to check for footprints and you can just about make out what look like water vole footprints in the clay from this raft. No mink footprints were found which is good but not definite proof that they are not in the area.

---

Flower Power

---

Rediscovered my macro lens today.

A cute female flower bee taking a rest and warming up on the patio.

Time for a wash and brush up including making sure that you have a very clean tongue!

  

Now for a bit of a feed but she's got the attention of the local males....

The female makes a break for it but is followed by two males who are joined by a third.

 One of the males attempts to mate with the female whilst another is close by.

 The male successfully mates with the female and I leave them alone.

Early Spring - So Easy To Miss

---

Blink and you can miss it. I find that spring is so easily missed, you tend to wait for spring to happen and then realise that it has and summer is fast approaching. March is when it all kicks off big time, and today was no exception, what a beautiful warm and sunny day.

I visited an area close to home and happily spent a couple of hours in the company of many butterflies, I must have had at least 12 brimstones flying up and down the hedgerows along with peacocks and commas. Buzzards were displaying overhead and lizards scurrying about in the leaf litter and basking in the warmth along with a single male adder.

 Backlit cultivated dafodils but the sign of early spring.

This peacock was one of many warming itself after overwintering in the area.

Common lizard catching a few rays.

 

Common Buzzard, one of 4 in the skies, displaying.

 Eristalis pertinax, the drone fly, a common but distinctive species.

Lesser Celandine, only a few in flower along with violets.

Comma butterfly, so called because of the white 'comma' like mark on the underwing.

Primroses, just make you feel good. 

Male adder, my first for the year.

Only when I had to leave did events take a turn for the worst as folks arrived intent on riding their motorbikes and quad bikes around the same area that all this wonderful wildlife lives in. Such a shame, I doubt they even cared.

February Missing Bits

---

So stuff that I forgot to blog about earlier. Well the first frogs in the pond appeared around Feb 17th and since then i've seen at least 4 with 2 coupled but so far no sign of any spawn. Toad patrolling at Swanscombe has been hit and miss but so far 8 toads, 7 frogs and 6 newts have been safely carried across the road and have hopefully been able to do their stuff. Whilst 5 toads and 1 frog weren't so lucky getting squashed on the way whilst crossing the road :-(

Also on the 17th Feb I saw a freshly dead badger at the top of the dual carriageway from the Bean roundabout as you approach Bluewater, whilst driving to work at Crossways. I've never knowingly heard redwings sing in the UK before this February and on a few occasions whilst walking to the car at Crossways I've enjoyed listening to a quiet, presumed, sub-song of a couple of redwings that were feeding on the cotoneaster berries of the bushes linking the various car parks there.

Friday was the start of the spring/summer/autumn Garden Moth Scheme, so I set my 40W actinic trap with an expectation of catching nothing especially as it was pouring with rain and cold. My expectation was appropriate for the night as my check of the trap in the morning proved that I had caught nothing or at least nothing decided to stay and who could blame it.

Went to a very interesting talk on Wildlife and Planning given by David Skully from Tunbridge Wells District Council last Friday at a Kent Mammal Group meeting. Certainly a subject that I knew very little about. David is the Biodiversity Officer for that Council and gets involved in many, if not all of the planning applications. Whilst David obviously enjoys his work immensely, I came away from the talk with the feeling that local councils are placed under great pressure to manage planning applications and their biodiversity impacts with minimal resources. I was unaware that quotas for handling planning applications are set by the government with penalties imposed if quotas are not met and the government wading in to make a planning decision if the 8 week timeline from submission to decision is not met. No doubt, David and his colleagues sometimes have to make compromises.

When you see government statements such as
'Purpose of planning is to help achieve sustainable development'
rather than what I'd prefer to read
'Purpose of planning is to help achieve sustainable biodiversity'

I tend to wonder just how long the remaining green spaces in Kent will actually remain and what will be left for future generations outside of nature reserves, assuming that the nature reserves are allowed to continue to enjoy their protected status?