Birdlife Malta is organising sunset boat trips during summer to enable people to watch the natural spectacle of hundreds of Scopoli’s shearwaters (Ä‹iefa) returning to their nests at Ta’ ÄŠenc cliffs, Gozo.

Adult shearwaters spend all day at sea, searching for food to bring back to their single chick, and only return to their nest under cover of darkness. At dusk hundreds of the birds may be seen gathering at sea.

Malta is home to five per cent of the world’s Scopoli’s shearwaters, with 1,000 pairs nesting at Ta’ ÄŠenc alone. The EU Life+ Malta Seabird Project, led by Birdlife Malta, has been researching the lives of these secretive birds with the aim of creating marine protected areas to safeguard Malta’s seabirds.

To date, over 200 Birdlife Malta members have joined these boat trips, during which participants watched some 800 of these birds fly close to the boats. Further boat trips will be held in August, open to Birdlife Malta members and the public.

All those interested in information about the trips may e-mail events@birdlifemalta.org.

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