Reserves

Today we did a better job of handling the erratic buses and visited 3 of the nature reserves set up by BirdLife Malta.

Ghadira has some unusual habitats for Malta including salt marsh and wetland areas. Is Samir has open areas of freshwater and reed beds, again rare for Malta. Foresta is a millennium tree planting project, where about 20,000 native trees and shrubs have been planted, here is a photo of giant fennel, which can get ridiculously massive and apparently tough enough to use for furniture.

I'm really looking forward to visiting these reserves on a regular basis, as this is supposed to be winter and not too exiting for wildlife but I saw three chameleons (Chamaeleo chamaeleon), more butterflies (painted lady, red admiral, wall and small whites) and a hummingbird hawk-moth. We spent some time in the bird hides and didn't see a great deal, but have been welcomed back for 5am bird ringing anytime- so I expect I'll get on that soon.