Growing up with Birds

Reflections on birds, passion and the ethics

My 8-year-old son is quite interested in birds. He notices birds and wants to know which bird is which.

I never learned to distinguish between magpie ja crow, until adulthood, but my son recognized them at the age of four. Last Christmas, he got a bird book as a gift, and it moved me to see how happy he was — looking at it for a long time, his eyes shining with joy, even though there were still unopened presents.

Birdwatching is a nice hobby and I guess anyone can learn to recognize birds. Even I.

A while ago, I came across information that the status of birds has changed over time. For the past few centuries — and still around the 50s — it was usual to seek for bird nests and steal the eggs. Apparently that was a common hobby of young boys, even a desirable hobby. There were many ordinary people who had their own egg collections.

So, I’m happy to notice that the world has changed for birds. My son found a swallow nest under our cabins deck while playing in the water with his boat. He told me, and asked if he could take a picture with my phone, once he was already beside the nest. I gave him my phone and he took a couple of pictures. Then he came out, gave the phone back and kept playing in a different spot. Swallows seemed not to be interested of us and we are doing anything we can to let them be at peace.

A couple of year ago I found out that there is a 'secret' egg museum in Finland, which is part of Natural History Museum of Helsinki. Only researchers are allowed to go in. There are 60,000 bird eggs, and the majority of those were donated by Ragnar Kreuger. He was a nature enthusiast and had been just that sort of little boy who collected eggs. Some of those eggs belong to extinct bird species, like the great auk, the giant Madagascar’s bird, and the passenger pigeon.

That collection has been important for research. When there are a lot of eggs from same bird but from a different era, it’s possible to use them for studying the effects of environmental toxics. Example: DDT made sea eagles’ eggshells thinner.

And why is that museum a secret? Because nobody wants people to develop a passion for collecting eggs anymore.

Letting go is a skill. I’d like to quote a character from Moomin Valley: Snufkin, who lives in a tent and hikes around the forest with a backpack that holds all he owns.

"I own everything I see and everything I love. Even the whole world." 
— Tove Jansson in a book Comet in Moominland 1946. (my own translation)

My own enthusiasm is to collect bird feathers I find on the ground. I have quite many. And that is something that does not harm birds.

What small moment in nature has touched you recently? Let me know below!