Yes, the French themselves have people who are willing to go after hunters who kill birds that should be left alone. A team of observers from the French League for the Protection of Birds believes that it has documentary evidence of illegal shooting which will stand up in a court of law. For, according to the Winter edition of Wings, the quarterly magazine of Birdwatch Ireland, hundreds of French hunters are defying their own national laws and shooting protected birds.
In this case it is the Turtle Doves as they migrate along the Atlantic coast each spring. The main area under observation is the Pointe de Grave, at a migration bottle neck, right at the point where the Gironde river enters the open sea. Opposite Royan and north of Bordeaux. The authorities, says Wings, are reluctant to prosecute the hunters.
The bird protection people who are investigating, have found eight hundred shooting posts at the Pointe de Grave and heard 2,585 gun reports in one day. Local gendarmes claimed to have heard only ten in twelve days.
The bird folk are hoping to convict the French government for failing to enforce the law, says the report. This is the Medoc region, well known for its wine.
It is interesting that the staff of the Bird Protection League were accompanied by a large squad of security personnel to guard against hunters who believe that they have a traditional right to shoot Turtle Doves, and are seeking an open season from 1st to 24th May. The Turtle Dove is said to be in decline over much of Europe. It is very seldom seen in Ireland, according to an expert. It is not the same as our Collared Dove. The Turtle Dove is streptopelia turtur.
The hunting spirit goes very deep in France. From memory, when the last game laws were going through, there were strong claims from some areas that practices which were carried on in certain localities, and which would die out with the passing of the older generation, might be tolerated.
But apart from the Turtle Doves, other birds are shot annually during migration. There is a place or district called Soule in the Department of Pyrenee's Atlantiques, where Ring Doves or Wood Pigeons are shot from October to mid November from platforms high in trees, or cabins, as they are, sometimes called, and are strictly confined to natives or residents of Soule according to the traditional regulations." A passionate and dug in people, the French.