Sucking Up Birds In Spain

[retrocop]

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/millions-birds-sucked-trees-killed-vacuum-olive-harvests-192517480.html
Oh dear. How very sad. Apart from Malta it would seem that Gness will also have to veto, Portugal, Spain,Cyprus and Italy for future Twitching holidays. Looks like Olives are the food of the devil as well. :-(. Always nice with a G&T. The Russians have been hoovering up shoals of fish for years as well. That is why fish is so expensive to buy and stocks are depleted. They process the fish into fertilizer. Jeez. Morons.

[ummmm]

Don't the Maltese catch them and that is Gness's point. The other poor birds are victims of harvesting.

[vetuste_ennemi]

I thought this might be a specialist service offered by Club Méditerranée. But no.

Meanwhile other "conservationists" like Kate Humble (RSPB) are promoting mincing machines for the creatures she purports to assist. Wind turbines or something?

[spathiphyllum]

I find olives really tasty in rice dishes and on pizza.

[Old_Geezer]

I'd have thought they'd want to avoid getting mangled wildlife in/over their crop.
Maybe they should temporarily net the trees a fews days prior.

[retrocop]

ummmm
As much as I admire the Maltese people and enjoy sport Rifle shooting I did not admire the Maltese just blasting the song birds out of the sky for 'sport'. Since Malta has been in the EU I believe the Maltese Government has taken great steps to tidy up their act and outlaw the indiscriminate shooting of song birds.
Most of the Olive Grove cooperatives I have visited in Greece used to harvest the olives ,for oil,in Winter when they are ripening.
The traditional method was to lay tarpaulins or nets under the trees and knock the fruit out of the tree with long sticks. Whole families were involved and it was almost a picnic atmosphere akin to the Kent hop pickers.It may hve taken longer to harvest but no birds were killed in the process. So much for progress.

[ummmm]

I love Malta.

OG is right; maybe they should net trees. As long as it's to make sure the birds won't be harmed. They will find somewhere else to nest.

[retrocop]

Cyprus has a worst record for trapping and killing birds than Malta ever had.
I recall my father telling me about the Lime sticks the poachers used when he served out there in 1956 and although now illegal it still goes on.
https://friendsoftheearth.uk/nature/slaughter-paradise-illegal-bird-trapping-cyprus

[ummmm]

I watched a programme (can't remember who hosted it) where they caught small birds and diners would eat them with napkins over their heads. I think it was in France.