On wildlife and more

This season, we’ve seen much less of the mute swans than last year. Although they’ve continued to appear in pairs we’ve seen none with any little ones. I have no idea whether our late spring might have had some sort of an effect on nesting or whether the lack of cygnets was a coincidence. Nevertheless, all the cranes we’ve spotted now have also been without offspring unlike last year when I took the two last photos below.

Other residents in the neighbourhood of the cottage include foxes and roe deer. The latter, although beautiful to look at, are losing their popularity because they act as hosts for ticks that may carry infectious diseases. For the bacterial one, Lyme disease also called Lyme borreliosis, there is no other definite prevention than avoiding tick attachment and the only cure is antibiotics.

We’ve had ourselves vaccinated against the viral one, tick-borne encephalitis or TBE, just in case because we spend a lot of time in the Turku archipelago where a risk exists. Today it is rather low but climate change is expected to increase these kinds of risks even in our secure corner of the world.

Already this very moment, we are evidencing the furious effects of climate change all around the globe. I find it unbelievable there are still people, let alone world leaders, who keep ignoring the expertise of the scientific community and deny the phenomenon. It is intolerable to see there are those who are wilfully contributing to turning many parts of this irreplaceable planet of ours uninhabitable. A spectacular sunset won’t give you much joy if you can’t bear the sight in daylight.