Instead of the normal burning, the fate of the straw this year had more Christmas spirit involved.
Gävle’s straw goat wasn’t burned this year, but mostly got eaten by the heifers. It has often been the fate of the straw to fall victim to arson.
Journalist and nature photographer of Ylen Luonto-Suomen Juha Blomberg sees the strawman’s destiny as a natural exit.
– Birds and other natural creatures are opportunists, and they do find their targets. This is still a destination where you can be at peace, says Blomberg.
The Straw Hat has been protected by a surveillance camera, and also a security guard on site. In addition, it is surrounded by double fences. However, the naakas have not cared about them.
– Nature has noticed that there is good food available here, so you could peck at that instead of walking around, says Blomberg.
He guesses that this time the trestle is built of straw with grains stuck to it.
– They don’t eat straw. It must have happened to someone in their childhood or they haven’t thought beyond that – and then it happened like this. I bet that next year there will be a little more specific about the straws, Blomberg estimates.
The duck also ate straw
Instead of the normal burning, the fate of the straw this year had more of the spirit of Christmas. “Little sparrow, eaten with summer food”, is also sung in the touching Christmas carol “Sparrow on summer morning”.
– In the old days, oat flakes were put in. In our home, too, my mother always bought a bunch of oats from the store, which she put somewhere on the windowsill, and all kinds of birds visited there, Blomberg recalls.
Naakka moves in large flocks and uses everything possible for food, according to Blomberg. They get protection from each other in large flocks if a bird of prey tries to catch up. The nakas are also hard to eat.
– How soon will a straw goat like that be eaten, when a flock of several hundred might become it.
In addition to the ducks, Gävle’s official X account of the straw man also shows a female duck in the pictures. What was it doing there?
– Ducks also like to eat grains. When the other birds peck at the goat, and of course grains fall to the ground, those ducks like it. Even in Helsinki, in Töölönlahti, grain is taken to the ducks for food, Blomberg explains.
The straw goat was built in Gävle for the first time in 1966. The goat is built every year on the first Sunday of Advent.