According to the expert, many bird species that thrive in Finland benefit from winter feeding. Marjo-Riikka Mäkelä, which feeds birds on Torkkelinmäki, has even been threatened.
How can such a small act evoke such great emotions?
That’s from Helsinki Marjo-Riikka Mäkelä has had to consider recently.
His beloved hobby has been feeding birds for years. At its best, it has been like relaxing meditation.
In his former homeland of the United States, he was allowed to feed the birds in peace for many years.
However, in his current residential area of Torkkelinmäki, Mäkelä has faced intimidation.
How did this happen?
As one During the day, a small, featherless sparrow chick dropped from the palm tree into Mäkelä’s head.
The 2010s were lived, and in the days, weeks, and months that followed, dozens and hundreds more of sparrow chicks dropped on the ground in California, as if it had rained down from the sky. The reasons were apparently a long-lasting heat wave, heat, drought and forest fires.
For several summers, Mäkelä transported chicks, squirrels and opossums around Los Angeles veterinary stations. He then heard that the sparrow birds were being killed at the stations and not even being rescued.
It was the beginning of Mäkelä’s long journey, where he began to learn how to care for small birds himself under the guidance of veterinarians and wildlife keepers.
Gradually, others began to bring chicks to Mäkelä for treatment.
To Finland Mäkelä moved in the summer.
He admired the singing sparrows, blackbirds, great tit, blue tit, and starling in his neighborhood.
Maybe they could be helped in some way too?
“I believe that wildlife belongs in nature, but because man is constantly removing natural habitats, it is our duty to help animals,” says Mäkelä.
Mäkelä found out from the city’s rules of procedure whether birds should be fed. Provided that the feeding of birds is not specifically prohibited or does not cause harm, it is permitted.
In the yard of Mäkelä’s own housing association, feeding birds was forbidden, but there was a bush on the nearby slope where it would certainly not be a problem.
Mäkelä chose a place where it would cause the least possible harm to other people’s souls. “In the summer, people went to the rye shop for rubbish and threw rubbish and syringes. I thought it was a good place when no one walks dogs or spends time there. ”
In summer During the heatwave, Mäkelä procured a drinking machine for birds.
When the autumn started to get cold, Mäkelä installed a bird feeding device in the ryteikko. He separately assured Stara’s representative that the bush was allowed to feed the birds.
Little birds, such as blue-headed beasts, blackbirds and sparrows, had their own racks, larger ones had their own racks. Mäkelä got a trough in front of the feeder so that the food would not fall to the ground.
He cleaned the area daily, watching the birds from his own window.
Until:
“People started shouting from the windows and passing cars that Satan would stop feeding the rats. Yes, we will get rid of them, they threatened. ”
Marjo-Riikka Mäkelä feeds birds preferably with peeled seeds. He lifts the feeding equipment inside for the night.
Mäkelä has continued to feed the birds persistently throughout the winter. In addition to him, the birds are fed by other bird lovers in the area.
“Some who have lived here longer have been afraid to throw food on the ground late at night because they have not wanted aggression on their necks.”
The threats in Mäkelä feel miserable and scary. Strangers describe him, sometimes Mäkelä is followed.
When the threats say they are calling the police about Mäkelä’s actions, Mäkelä says that he has clarified the city’s rules and asked for permission to operate.
“It has never been meant to offend anyone. I am not embarrassed to do this, ”says Mäkelä.
Apparently rats arouse so much disgust in humans that a woman must be threatened with feeding birds, Mäkelä doubts.
Rats are bustling in the area, Mäkeläk admits, but according to him, the reason for the rat population is too full and open trash cans, rinsing food in the sewers and summer partygoers who left pizzas and burgers on the lawn.
In the metropolitan area the rat problem also suffers in many other areas.
Because of the rats, Mäkelä has special activities in feeding the birds: he prefers to feed the birds with peeled seeds, of which there is little to eat on the ground.
The feeding equipment he now takes inside for the night.
Helsinki environmental inspector of the city’s urban environment industry Jukka Kiesi knows the situation in Torkkelinmäki. He himself has inspected the bird feeding point set up by Mäkelä on site, as there had been complaints about the neighborhood.
“There was very good feeding there. Food dripping on the ground was collected and the equipment was taken away for the night. On that scale, bird feeding cannot be better done, ”says Kiesi.
Nevertheless, according to Kies, food may end up in the mouths of rats.
On Monday, the city’s environmental and health inspectors will consider whether the bird feeding area in Torkkelinmäki is a health problem.
Mäkelä feared the decision in advance: if the feeding point were banned, many might secretly feed the birds at night, in which case some of the food would end up in the rats.
The result of the discussions of the city inspectors was a relief for Mäkelä: the feeding of the birds can be continued for the time being.
Mäkelä carefully feeds the birds’ food so that no extra crumbs drip into the ground for the rats.
Helsinki the city has drawn up new guidelines at the end of december on where bird feeding is prohibited. In the new decision, ten areas will remain within the exclusion zone.
According to Kies, these areas are, in effect, market areas with regular food sales.
“In other areas, too, feeding birds is not recommended due to possible rat nuisance,” says Kiesi.
According to the city’s instructions, feeding birds on Torkkelinmäki is therefore permitted, but not recommended.
Bird Life Finland spokesman for the Association Jan Södersved says that once the birds have been fed in the fall, it would be a good idea to feed them through the winter if there is no other feeding place nearby. There is no need to feed the birds during the summer.
“A seedless sunflower seed is better than a shelled one because it does not attract unwanted small mammals. Different fat balls and fat sausages are also good, ”says Södersved, saying that tidying up the feeding area is essential.
Spicy or spoiled food must not be given to birds. According to Södersved, for example, human food remains are not suitable for birds.
Södersved says you don’t have to have a bad conscience if you don’t feed the birds in the winter. Yes, birds have the ability to manage on their own.
People get a lot of joy from feeding the birds: many feel they are helping the birds, and as a reward, Helpers can watch the birds up close.
“Feeding is definitely beneficial for many of the birds we winter in,” says Södersved.
“Birds that overwinter by feeding are in better condition to start nesting in the spring, and so the nesting result can be better. Birds accustomed to feeding during the harshest frosts can even depend on feeding depending on the location. ”
Read more: A scary message arrives from the sky: At the southernmost tip of Finland, there is a place closed to the public where the alarm state of Finland’s nature is perhaps more clearly visible than anywhere else.
Read more: When Lauri Hallikainen was involved in a grenade launcher in his twenties, the song from his blackman comforted him – Listen to HS’s special article on how the Finnish spring wakes up loudly
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