Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1350550
14 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 14 MARCH 2021 EYEWITNESS Diving in at over 320km per hour, Peregrine falcons can not only be the fastest birds, but the fastest animals on Earth. These intelligent birds have formed a bond with their own- ers, being set free yet finding their way back again and again. As a tradition that spans thousands of years, fal- conry creates a certain emotional bond between falconers and their birds. "There's nothing like the feeling of pride and when your bird takes a dive or pure joy when they come back," vet- eran falconer Marco Aquilina told MaltaToday. "It does not form overnight. It needs to be sustained. Unlike other pets like dogs, who come to their owners out of a sense of loy- alty, in this case there is no loyalty. Instead, the falconer needs to create a bond so that bit by bit, the bird will start to trust him, knowing that she will be taken care of. This is a technique that man discovered 4,000 years ago, a long process of bonding that requires him to spend many hours a day in order to foster it." The falcon must be trained every single day, and feeding time is an art of its own. Equipped with a GPS and whistle, Aquilina starts off with exercises that train the bird to re- spond to their call. Then, it is time to start flying. At law GPS tracking is mandatory. "This is the hardest bit… letting the bird go, and knowing that she might not come back. You can work for so long on something in order to perfect it, and then lose it in an instant," Aquilina says. Lucas Micallef, the president of the Malta Falconers Club, says falconry has very strong ties to Malta. Apart from be- ing the coveted 'MacGuffin' in the 1941 film adaption of the detective novel The Maltese Falcon (the small statu- ette provides both the book's title and its motive for in- trigue), historically when Charles V handed over Malta to the Knights of St John of Jerusalem, part of the islands' remittance to the sovereign was a wild peregrine falcon captured from the Dingli Cliffs area. The Environment and Resources Authority has already ap- proved a pest control pilot in Comino, to assess the possi- bility of using such a system for the control of pest popula- tions of the islands, rather than using chemicals or culling. "Falconry can be used for the rehabilitation of birds which would have suffered some type of incident or injury during migration, so falconers, through their practice, are able to rehabilitate these species so that they can continue on their journey," Micallef says. Micallef credits a recent increase in awareness with an in- crease in the population of birds of prey. Since 2009, Mal- ta also saw the return of the peregrine falcon, for the first time in decades. "We were glad to highlight the return of the peregrine falcon that has successfully bred in the wild on the Maltese islands in recent years. In 2015 a pair of peregrine falcons was observed breeding on the Maltese Islands," he said. "Since then, another two pairs bred on Ta' Cenc cliffs on Comino. This strengthens our resolve to continue raising awareness of these occurrences to fur- ther safeguard these magnificent species." Ancient art revived