Just back from a supposedly non-birding holiday in Malta but still managed to see a good number of birds. We stayed in the village of Marsaxlokk on the south coast and travelled throughout Malta and Gozo in our hire car (watch out for the pot-holes and lack of road signs!). We visited a couple of Birdlife Malta reserves - Ghadira twice, and Is-Simar once. Highlights were good numbers of Alpine Swifts and a Pallid Swift among loads of Common Swifts and hirundines at Ghadira, where we also saw a Sub-alpine Warbler, Common Redstart, Kingfisher, lots of Little Ringed Plover, Common Sandpipers, 2 B N Grebes, single Flamingo, B W Stilt, Green Sandpipers and Black-headed Wagtails. The reserves are usually only open to the public at weekends but we phoned ahead and staff kindly allowed us to visit mid-week. Elsewhere, we watched a male Marsh Harrier come in off the sea on the south coast and a Black Kite on Gozo heading north. We saw commoner migrants starting to pass through, including Wheatear, Whinchat, Blackcaps, Chiffchaffs, White Wagtails, Swallows, House Martins, Meadow Pipits (some of these are probably wintering birdds as well as spring migrants). Commonest species on the island were Spanish Sparrow (everwhere!) with Stonechat, Blue Rock Thrush, Black Redstart, Sardinian Warbler, Fan-tailed Warbler, Corn Bunting and Y L Gulls all seen fairly regularly. We saw Yelkouan Shearwaters offshore on a few occasions. Generally however, birds were thin on the ground, and it was strange not to see species which you would expect to be common such as finches etc. We saw no sign of any hunting taking place currently but the hunters huts are everywhere around the coasts. Birdlife Malta staff we spoke to suggested things were slowly improving though big problems with illegal hunting persist. They said they are keen for overseas birders to visit the island and support their conservation work. All the local people we met were very welcoming and seemed genuinely interested we were birdwatchers. Malta is a controversial destination for birdwatchers, and we had our misgivings about going due to all the negative stories, but alot of positive work is going on there and some good birds can be found.