A secure breeding ground for seabirds

For many Maltese the small island of Filfla is a strange mysterious place which hardly anybody ever visits. 

I have been to Filfla several times to help in the study of  its breeding bird populations  but this weekend I took part in a boat trip around the island organised by BirdLife Malta to get a different perspective of the island.

The present shape of Filfla is a result of a century of heavy bombing by the Royal Navy which used it as target practice. The bombardments destroyed large parts of the islet and was leading to the death of many of the island’s breeding seabirds. 

The bombing stopped in 1971 following pressure by the Malta Ornithological Society. In 1980 Filfla became a bird reserve and it became illegal to shoot at birds on the island. 

Eight years later, the bird reserve was given further protection and more restrictions on access were imposed. It is now possible to view Filfla only from a boat as long as one does not land on the islands. Permission to land is given only to persons carrying out scientific research.  

Filfla once formed part of the mainland. As a result of a geological event which must have been of cataclysmic proportions, a large piece of land slid down into the sea by more than 200 metres creating the Magħlaq Fault and a sea channel between Filfla and the mainland.  

The five kilometre channel provides enough isolation for a special habitat for several species of plants and animals. As a result of this isolation some animals and plants took a separate evolutionary path resulting in a number of endemic races of indigenous species. 

The best known of these is Maltese wall lizard whose scientific name is Podarcis filfolensis. This lizard is endemic to the Maltese islands. Four races of this species exist one of which is found only on Filfla. The Filfla lizard is blackish with green spots and is larger than the others races.

Filfla’s isolation has provided a safe breeding ground for a number of seabirds particularly the storm petrel  which in Maltese is known as kanġu ta’ Filfla, a sparrow-sized seabird that approaches land only during the night and which is hardly ever seen out at sea. 

The Cory’s shearwater ċiefa in Maltese, is another breeder while the Yelkouan shearwaters (garnija) probably breeds on the island as well.  

The yellow legged gull (gawwija prima), Malta’s largest breeding bird, breeds in increasing numbers on the plateau although some nests are sometimes built among the boulders at the foot of the cliffs. 

This article was published in The Times on 04.07.2012

The yellow-legged wader

The wood sandpiper is a wading bird seen in the Maltese islands during migration. It is one of the smaller waders with a short fine bill and yellowish legs. 

Several species of waders visit the Maltese islands. To the uninitiated they might all look the same but with a little practice and experience identifying these birds becomes second nature.

The best place to see migrating wood sandpipers and other waders in Malta is at the Għadira Nature Reserve near Mellieħa which is open t the public on weekends but to see them breeding you would have to travel north at least as far as Scandinavia. 

The nests are built on the ground in open swampy areas in northern forests, but as the summer season so far north is very short you would have to be there between May and mid-July. 

The start and finishing dates of the breeding season depends on how far north they are. In northern Russia for example breeding does not start before June.

Some adult green sandpipers start migrating south as early as late June. 

Young birds remain behind for longer and usually leave in late August. 

This gives them time to become fully grown and to build up their fat reserves which will provide them with the energy required to fly south. 

European and many Asian wood sandpipers spend the winter in Africa. 

On their way south they stop to feed and replenish their fat in suitable places. 

Wetlands north of the Mediterranean are of great importance for these birds as the reserves they build make it possible for them to cross the Sahara desert without the need to refuel.

When stopping to feed, migrating sandpipers keep themselves busy walking continuously along the water’s edge or in shallow waters, picking up tiny aquatic insects from the mud or from the water’s surface.

Wood sandpipers have a very large breeding range and they are not considered as being endangered although climate change is seen as a threat as this could result in their specialised habitat shrinking in area.

 As the earth warms up these birds might have to travel further north to find suitable breeding sites. 

This article was published in The Times on 18.04.2012

Watching Cory’s shearwaters

Cory's shearwater (Calonectris diomedea)

This weekend I took part for the second year running in a Birdlife Malta boat trip to watch Cory’s shearwaters off Gozo. Seeing the enthusiasm of the participants while watching the shearwaters brought to my mind pictures I have seen of tourists watching whales in other parts of the world.

Whale watching is attracting millions of people worldwide. The first whale watching trips took place in 1955.

During that year 10,000 persons paid US $ 1 per trip to be able to get close to the whales. 

By 2008 the number of persons watching whales had risen to 13 million. It is estimated that these generated US $ 2.1 billion in tourism revenue annually.

Watching shearwaters in Malta offers an unforgettable experience that is probably as exciting as whale watching. The Cory’s shearwater, known in Maltese as Ċiefa, is a large bird that looks like a long-winged gull. It flies just above the water surface keeping its wings open to make the most out of air currents that form just above the water surface. It is well adapted for life at sea and approaches land only to breed. 

The Cory’s shearwater nests in colonies, usually under boulders or in crevices in undisturbed cliffs. During the day the colonies are very quite and one does not realize that hundreds of birds could be present close by. During the night the colony becomes alive with the loud calls of the shearwaters as these birds visit the nests to relieve their partner and after the eggs hatch to feed the young birds.

At least 5,000 pairs of Cory’s shearwater breed in the Maltese islands. The largest colony is found at Ta’ Cenc in Gozo.

Shearwater watching can become more popular in the Maltese islands and can even attract a good number of specialized visitors to the Maltese islands. Furthermore such activities can help to create more awareness about the Maltese natural environment. 

This article was published in The Times on 13/7.2011

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