This year was once again a busy one at Ghadira Nature Reserve with 10,100 people visiting the place, BirdLife Malta said yesterday.

Of these, 3,800 were schoolchildren. The remaining 6,300 persons were members of the public, including tourists who visited the reserve over the weekends.

Ghadira Nature Reserve is now closed for visits and will re-open as usual towards the end of October.

The hot summer months are usually quiet for bird migration and BirdLife volunteers who take care of visitors at the reserve, take a well deserved break.

At the same time the managing warden and his assistant have more time on their hands for much needed habitat maintenance and improvement, BirdLife said.

The same applies for Simar Nature Reserve, which this year was opened for the first time for secondary school students. Simar has not yet been opened to the public as there are no facilities to cater for this as yet.

"BirdLife Malta feels that the nature reserves which it manages give a positive contribution not only for nature appreciation with the locals, but also encourage ecotourism, particularly this year being the international ecotourism year," it said.

With the help of the education department, this year two full-time teachers have been posted at the nature reserves to lecture school groups about natural history and appreciation of nature in general.

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