The Yelkouan shearwater, one of Malta's four breeding seabirds, this month starts migrating east to the Aegean and Black Sea after raising another generation of chicks. Following a reported decline in Yelkouan shearwaters throughout the Mediterranean, including Malta, a four-year conservation project funded by EU Life, HSBC and the Malta Environment and Planning Authority was initiated in 2006 to reverse the decline of the species at its largest colony at Rdum tal-Madonna in Mellieħa, where a third of Malta's Yelkouan shearwater population nests every year. Recent studies have confirmed that, whereas before the project, the population at Rdum tal-Madonna was suffering a five per cent decline, it has now improved by 10 per cent and is on the increase.