Birds return to their place / day

Interest in nature is natural, I just haven’t lost it, says Viesturs Kerus, Chairman of the Board of the Latvian Ornithological Society. Interest on the birds he once took a focus on victory in the magazine Puppy Binoculars obtained in the Nature Description Competition. Now Viesturs is one of the most prominent representatives of nature guards in discussions on the implementation of forest policy, and his arguments can also be read at https://vkerus.blogspot.com. For children, Viesturs writes books on nature, so to speak, the bright side, continuing the tradition of nature stories in Latvian literature. « When I saw his first books Forest girl May (2019) Manuscript, I was overwhelmed by a sense of relief – it seemed that after John Baltvil, no one was writing stories about nature for eternity, « says poet and editor Inese Zander. » But, re, one of the forest in Lesten and writes. Viesturs tries to match the child’s perception and interesting portrayal with knowledge. This seems very important to me, because children’s literature sins with all kinds of nonsense about nature. Now it is even more important, because many children in nature are quite little. « 

What does spring mean to you as an ornithologist?

First, the ornithologist has several spring per year. The first feeling of spring is as early as January, when the pupils begin to sing. I have been engaged in wintering waterfowl counting in Marupite from the age of adolescence. It happens in mid -January, walks along Marupite, we hear the pupils singing there almost every year and realize that spring is here. The next spring is the first turtles, another one is when you start singing the nightingale … In the spring, the ancient feelings are awakened, why you turn to birds at all – it’s just cool to see the birds return and everything bends in place: is back Cielava at the house, is a pigeon in the forest and so on.

Of course, the ornithologist also has a lot of work. Although I run much less than I would like because of my job, I still have nesting birds, I have to go the route four times every year, and I take the bunnies at the Adazi Landfill in my spare time. Still in the spring, there is a communication side, then the people are more interested in birds, calling on ornithologists to schools, libraries. As poets are in September In the days of poetrySo ornithologists in the spring, then everyone needs them.

What do you see when meeting with children in schools? How much is their interest in birds?

This is very different. I like to tell the most in schools when schools themselves think about what I would like to hear. Often schools choose the usual stories – about changes in the seasons and bird life, and the most common birds in Latvia. Then I get tired because I’m not an actor, I admire the people who can make every night as the first time. I can’t.