David
Camilleri was born in Gozo on September 6th, 1962, the youngest of 16
children. He left Nadur, aged 18, and headed to New York City.
The
Nadur-born artist attained
notoriety in the year 2000 when he set up a cage with himself in it,
symbolising the plight of the caged birds in Malta. This form of
art-work was later exhibited at the National Museum of Fine Arts. A
regular visitor to june29th.com and a reformed-hunter, Camilleri has a dream -
to
see the
Nadur countryside full of life, birds and
colour. The latest Photo of the Month triggered Camilleri to share his
dream with all our readers. This is what he had to say...
A
Dream
by David Camilleri
I was browsing
june29th.com and was amazed by the Photo of the Month (the one of the
lizard (haxmet). I think that using wild animals shot
(photographed) for this popular website would inspire nature lovers to pick up
this sport of nature watching.
I shot this Merlin (Falco Columbarius) one Sunday afternoon while my daughter, wife and I were having lunch and looking out of our kitchen window. Look who came a few metres away to have his lunch! The site amazed us and after half an hour of watching him lunching on a starling, I realized that I should take a few shots with my digital camera. I'm glad I did.
I e-mailed some photos of this visitor to an Internet Raptor-Bird E-Group and for a week it was the talk of this group. Here you see a Merlin in the middle of a concrete jungle - New York City. I learned from the E-Group that this Merlin was on its north migration from the South.
Imagine
if in Ghawdex and Malta the migratory birds are not touched! Malta would
become a hub for bird-watchers. All these empty hotels would be full in
spring and autumn during migration times. We would all see and enjoy the
songs of many species of birds in Malta effortlessly.
They would come and roost on our aerials and backyard gardens. We don't need caged birds any longer to enjoy their songs. We could walk in the Nadur countryside and look at thousands of majestic birds all the time. The Nadur countryside would be full of life, full of birds and full of colour.
Imagine if Ghawdex and Malta are two big nature-reserves, where birds and wildlife are protected from harm!
What a dream to dream to be lived!
