Ta’ Ċenċ

Whenever I am in Gozo I go to this little known part of the island which is one of the most beautiful and definitely the most spectacular place in the Maltese archipelago.

I was not the only one there. Three men in their late seventies, were sitting on a rock taking in the view. They said that they go there every Sunday after hearing mass at the Sannat Parish Church. 

They knew that they were lucky to live near such a beautiful place and that they were lucky that it was still in its pristine state.

They recalled that in the late eighties there were plans to build a mega tourist complex complete with two hotels, golf course and helicopter pad and that it was thanks to public pressure that the place was saved.

The campaign to save Ta’ Ċenċ was carried out by a small number of environmental organisations that got together to stop the project at a time when there were still no official structures to evaluate such projects, and Environment Impact Assessments were still unheard of. Reports were drawn up which showed the importance of the area for the biodiversity of the Maltese islands. 

The cliffs and plateau provide habitat for a large variety of plants and animals including the Cory’s shearwater (ċiefa), and Malta’s national bird the blue rock thrush (merill) both of which breed in crevices in the vertical cliff faces. 

The peregrine falcon (bies), which was immortalised in the film The Maltese Falcon, used to breed on the cliffs. The vast garigue provides an important habitat for birds, insects and flowering plants, especially orchids. During my visit on Sunday, I saw more butterflies at Ta’ Ċenċ than I had seen in Malta during the past few months.

When the campaign to save Ta’ Ċenċ started, few people knew that this place existed and even fewer had been there. Even now, twenty years later, few people go there. The cliff face and parts of the plateau are protected legally but more needs to be done to ensure that future generations can enjoy the whole of Ta’ Ċenċ with all its plants and animals.

 The whole plateau and the surrounding areas including valleys and agricultural land need to be given added protection a move which would fit perfectly with the concept of Gozo as an eco island.

The Cory's shearwater

The Cory's Shearwater is a large seabird that breeds mainly on islands and cliffs in the Mediterranean. 

In the Maltese Islands it breeds along most of the cliffs of Malta, Gozo and Comino as well as on the islet of Filfla. The nest which is not more than a shallow depression in the ground is usually found in deep crevices or underneath boulders safe from predators especially gulls.

In Maltese the Cory’s shearwater is known as ċiefa. About 7,000 breeding pairs are found in the Maltese islands. The largest colony is found at Ta’ Ċenċ on Gozo where it is estimated there are about 1,000 pairs breed but if you visit this site of any of the other colonies during the day you will not see any shearwaters flying around. 

Shearwaters which are not incubating spend the day feeding far out at sea. They return to take over brooding duties or to feed the young at night when the colonies become alive with loud calls like that of crying babies.

Cory’s shearwaters are at their colonies from late February to October.

 They lay a single egg at the end of May. The hatchling is fed on regurgitated food and the young bird grows and becomes fat very quickly. In August and September, while still covered in downy feathers, it weighs twice as much as its parents. In September it starts to grow true feathers. 

By this time it is visited by its parents less and less often and is abandoned completely for several weeks at the end of the breeding season. 

During this time it relies on the fat that was accumulated in its body while it was growing. 

In October the young birds have grown their full compliment of adult feathers and as their fat reserves are used up they start getting restless often visiting the opening of the crevice in which they were hatched until one night they open their wings and jump off to take their first flight. 

The colonies are deserted by the third week of October.

One hundred and fifty years ago Cory’s shearwater were shot to be roasted and mashed into a paste which was used as fishing bait. They were also available for sale at the Valletta market. Some hunters used to go out in boats to shoot them for fun. This practice increased in the 1980s when hunting from boats started to become popular even though by this time it had become illegal to shoot at these birds. Today the biggest threat is from human disturbance. 

These birds are very sensitive to light and abandon their colonies if there is too much light in the vicinity. To protect these birds it is important to ensure that no development that could be detrimental to this species is allowed along the cliff faces where they breed. Colonies are also destroyed by quarrying and no development along the cliffs where they breed.

This article appeared in The Times 21.07.2010