FORESTA 2000

Opening hours Open all year round and accessible 24 hours a day

Entrance free (donations welcome!)

More info at http://bit.ly/Foresta2000NatureReserve

Bath White

Farfett tal-Ġarġir Pontia daplidice

Many older people agree that butterflies were more common “when we were young". Well, we zap their young with pesticides, kill their foodplants with herbicide, and bury their habitat under concrete and tarmac, so it’s no surprise. Naturally, none of this happens at our nature reserves, so we often spot several of our twenty-odd species flitting along the footpaths and wild flowers at Foresta. One such beauty is the small and delicate Bath White. It’s largely white, with black spots on its upper wings and extensive greenish patterns on its lower wings. Its Maltese name refers to its foodplant, that vital species on which the mother lays her eggs for her young to gorge on. In the Bath White’s case it is various species of rockets and mustards.

False Fennel

Bużbież il-Qamħ Ridolfia segetum

It does look very much like the real Bużbieża (Fennel), down to its fine feathery foliage. But one give-away is that the False Fennel flowers a month or two earlier than its summer-loving cousin. It’s also much less common than Fennel, so it is encouraging that in recent years we have been spotting a few nice stands of this eye-catching shrub at Foresta too. It’s good news for biodiversity too because the False Fennel is a member of the carrot family, the members of which attract many bugs, beetles, bees, butterflies and hover-flies. These insects love nothing better than to land on the umbrella-like bouquets to guzzle pollen and nectar from a myriad yellow florets.

Common Hoopoe

Daqquqa tat-Toppu Upupa epops

The Common Hoopoe is one of our more exotic-looking birds. In flight it’s like the bird version of a butterfly, with wide wings, flashing black-and-white stripes and a flappy flight. But once it settles on the ground it virtually disappears. How does it do it? Well, hoopoes have short legs, which gives them a low profile as they skulk and probe the soil for worms and insects with their long curved bill. Stripey wings apart, the bird’s body plumage is sandy, which helps the bird blend with the ground; as long, that is, as it doesn’t unfurl its pièce de résistance: that magnificent crest! Hoopoes are migratory birds, nesting in Europe and wintering in Africa. On their way to and fro, a few often land for a snack ’n’ snooze in the quiet glades at Foresta.