Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/881840
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 1 OCTOBER 2017 40 This Week The Nightjar is one weird-looking bird. In flight it's nothing much out of the ordinary: a slim, narrow-winged, falcon-like bird that flits fast across your view. It gives you precious little time to see it well, and not just because of the swift flight: it's also more likely than not to be out after sunset (hence the 'night' in the name). By day Nightjars (M: Buqrajq) sleep in trees or in shady, leaf-littered ground underneath the tree. Once settled down and motionless along a gnarled branch or among that leaf litter the bird virtually disappears, so perfect is the camouflage. Seen up close, the Nightjar is yet another marvel of evolution, with large reflective eyes and a huge mouth with bristles all around it. These are all tools that help the bird locate and catch insects in flight at night. In Malta we get Nightjars on migration in spring and autumn. Like most other birds, they are protected. Visit Friends of the Earth's website for more information about our work, as well as for information about how to join us. You can also support us by sending us a donation - www.foemalta.org/donate Text Victor Falzon Photo Ray Galea 577. EUROPEAN NIGHTJAR GREEN IDEA OF THE WEEK 480: FIND OUT MORE ABOUT OUR BEE WORK - HTTPS://FOEMALTA.ORG/BEECAUSE/ The prolonged period of reduced rainfall which struck Malta in 2016 had an adverse effect not only on agriculture and produce harvest that year, but also on our most reliant pollinators, the bees. Honey bee keepers throughout the Islands had hives dying off, with some loosing as many as half of their colonies. The beloved honey bee (Apis mellifera) has had a turbulent few decades, due to the uptake of unsustainable agricultural practices and the excessive use of agrochemicals. Colonies have been weakened and made more susceptible to diseases and parasites, and when a drought strikes, the synergistic effects are leading to its demise. What most of us don't realise is that the honey bees are not the only bees at risk. There are over 20,000 known species of bee globally, with the honey bee only being one of them. Some bees are social creatures and other wild bees are solitary and live their life nesting on their own, like the Maltese mason bee and leaf-cutter bee. The beauty of having such a diversity of bees is that their unique morphology and lifecycle allows them to be more adapt at specific roles in an ecosystem. This makes the Maltese wild flora, horticultural and agricultural plants, rely on the complex intricacies of a collective of different pollinators. As Martin Winston puts it in his book Bee Time, since our environmental health and food supply depends on bees, we have entered an agreement with these creatures that in exchange for their pollination service, keeping ecosystems stable, feeding our planet, and simply for their intrinsic beauty, us humans in return must maintain an environment where they can thrive. So the question posed is, how can we assist bees in living healthy lives? Well, there are a number of practices that we can adopted, such as supporting produce which has been grown pesticide-free, growing a herb- garden or opening a luxury Bee n' Bee. Catering for our Bees Valletta 2018 will see up to one million in audiences next year A total of €10 million will be spent during 2018 when Valletta assumes the honour of European Capital of Culture for that year. V18 Foundation chairman Jason Micallef announced today a pro- gramme of 140 exclusive projects and 400 activities across Malta, as he spoke of the five-year jour- ney that took Malta into Valletta 2018. "This programme is one of cul- tural vision," Micallef said. "What distinguishes Malta is its 'festa' – an island-wide festa across Malta and Gozo, is the background to this programme." Micallef was expected audiences for all events to total 1 million throughout 2018, and that book- ings in Valletta would be 10% higher than normal. He also said new jobs would be created in the creative economy sector, which already employs 11,000. The V18 commit employs 45 people, with its work coming to an end in March 2019. "Various V18 projects, as well as the International Baroque Festi- val, the Valletta Design Clusters, and the regeneration of Strait Street, and the rehabilitation of the Tritons Pjazza, all have the aim of reviving Valletta and reha- bilitating urban zone. The aim is to make culture accessible to all," Micallef said. Micallef also said discussions are ongoing to create a Valletta Cultural Agency, to take forward the V18 legacy, and prepare for 2030 when Malta will once again be eligible to be a European Capi- tal of Culture. V18 artistic director Mario Phil- ip Azzopardi spoke about the cre- ation of four areas across Valletta, with 20-minute cultural perfor- mances taking place every hour on the hour in each area – Pjazza Tritoni, Pjazza San Gwann, Pjaz- za Kastilja and Pjazza San Gorg. V18 chairperson Jason Micallef presenting the programme for the 2018 European Capital of Culture The only new 'hotels' we'd love to build