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June 6, 2008
Malta - one of the top birding destinations in Europe
Hadoram Shirihai is fresh off a boat trip to photograph Mediterranean Storm-petrels here in Malta and he is excited. “We had a pod of common dolphins, twenty-five of them, circling close to us and fishing with the shearwaters. The birds were feeding among the dolphins and picking off the fish they missed. We could have watched them all day, they were so close….. but we had to go on to find the storm-petrels”.
When a man like Hadoram Shirihai is excited about birding in Malta, you know it’s serious. Shirihai is a heavy-weight ornithologist from Israel, widely acknowledged as the foremost middle-eastern authority on birds. His published works include The Birds of Israel which was awarded 'Best Bird Book of the Year' by British Birds and Birdwatch. He also won awards for A Complete Guide to Antarctic Wildlife, while The Macmillan Birder's Guide to European and Middle Eastern Birds is a summary of 30 years of field research. Amongst these achievements, he recently rediscovered Beck’s Petrel which had been believed to be extinct for around 80 years. Last week, he flew to Malta specifically to meet John J. Borg of Heritage Malta and the EU LIFE Yelkouan Shearwater Project so that John could show him the very special storm-petrels that breed on Filfla.
Storm Petrel © Joe Cockram, from the surfbirds galleries
His enthusiasm for the seabird populations here in the islands was infectious. “What a trip!” he enthused. “We left port at 4.30am and headed straight out beyond Filfla. John has a secret recipe which he puts into the water to tempt the birds in and we spent a lot of time bobbing on the sea with the birds just out of range of the camera. The Cory’s and Yelkouan Shearwaters came close to the boat, but the storm-petrels were more wary.” John confirms, “Every time we swung round to get close, they backed away, ‘running’ on the waves before take off, as if they were teasing us. These birds are a little camera shy which is why getting a good photo of them at sea is such a prize.”
Having seen just a little bit of what Malta has to offer, Shirihai feels that the islands have the potential to be one of the top birding destinations in Europe in terms of migration. “I can see the parallels in Malta with the birding situation in Eilat in Israel in the 1970s,” he says. At that time, birding tourism was just about to start its meteoric rise up the economic agenda. Bird-watching in Malta now seems set to see a similar explosion in popularity in the coming years.
Shirihai is already planning his next trip to Malta, hoping to arrive in June to finally snap those elusive storm-petrels so that they can feature in his current work, a handbook on seabirds which is still a work in progress. And with his eye for a great birding destination, where Shirihai goes, it’s worth other birders following – so pack your binos; we’ll see you in Malta!
The Yelkouan Shearwater Project is a partnership initiative of 4 government authorities (Heritage Malta, Malta Martime Authority, Malta Centre for Fisheries Sciences and the Armed Forces of Malta) and 3 conservation organisations (BirdLife Malta, SPEA – BirdLife Portugal and RSPB – BirdLife UK). It is part funded by the EU and receives financial contributions from HSBC and MEPA. To find out more visit www.lifeshearwaterproject.org.mt
Posted by Surfbirds at June 6, 2008 6:36 AM
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