Flyway Millions of birds make a long journey from Europe to Africa in autumn to escape the cold north winter. On their way they have to fly across the Mediterranean Sea. But many birds don't like to cross the sea because if they get tired they'll fall and drown. To solve this problem, many birds cross the Mediterranean Sea where it's very narrow and they do so in three places: over Gibraltar in the west, over Turkey in the east or down the middle over Italy, Sicily... and Malta! In spring they all fly back home to Europe again. That's why the best times to go birdwatching are spring and autumn.

	Spiders You all know spiders aren't insects. Insects have six legs, spiders have eight. But did you know just how many kinds of spiders we have in Malta? Nobody really knows yet because not many people study Maltese spiders and some spiders are really tiny and hard to spot. But, experts think that there are over 400 different species! Imagine finding a different spider every day for a whole year and still have more to find. Many people are scared of spiders but that's because they see too many horror films. Maltese spiders aren't dangerous to people and we don't get the famous black widow spider that bit Peter Parker and turned him into Spiderman! Still we shouldn't pick spiders up because some of them can bite! And anyway if we try to pick a spider its legs may come off and that's not nice, is it?

	Summer Frogs We all enjoy frogs swimming and diving around in the valley streams in winter. But what happens to frogs in summer? Do they die? Do they swim to another country? Not really. They just go to sleep in a hole! When the rainy season is over and the ponds and streams begin to dry up in spring, frogs dig a hole in the wet mud and make a dark, damp little room. They bury themselves in this hole. There, hidden and safe from danger, they go to sleep for the rest of the summer. It's called aestivation - it's just like hibernation. Hibernation happens in winter and aestivation happens in summer. During aestivation, frogs don't eat or move about and even their heartbeat slows down. When rain comes back in autumn, the mud gets wet again and the frogs wake up. Time to jump and swim and eat and enjoy life again!