BBC Wildlife - UK (2021-12)

discoverwildlife.com BBC WILDLIFE 63

I

n my cupped hand is one of

nature’s treasures. A feather I’ve

often dreamed of finding. It is quite

small – shorter than my little finger

• but the most remarkable thing
  about it is the colour. There are 11 stripes
  of the purest blue, as brilliant as a cloudless
  alpine sky. In the gloomy wood, the feather
  appears to glow.
  This wonderful object, one of the
  greater coverts that cover the base of the
  flight feathers on a jay’s wing, is perfectly
  fresh. The bird was obviously in the middle
  of its annual moult and had just plucked
  it out of its plumage. Somehow – what are
  the chances? – it drifted down to earth at
  precisely the right moment. Strictly speaking,
  though, the discovery is not mine. Our
  youngest daughter, blessed like all children
  with ‘ditch vision’, noticed the feather first.
  Children are hard-wired to notice and
  play with natural things. Even soil. They
  can’t help it. Magpie-like, if left to their
  own devices, they soon have pockets full of
  feathers, seeds, flowers, stones, bones, shells
  or whatever else takes their fancy. It doesn’t
  matter if the stuff is dirty or in pieces: in
  it all goes.
  “It seems there is something deeply
  human about gathering and collecting,” says
  journalist Lucy Jones. Her book The Nature
  Seed: How to Raise Adventurous and Nurturing
  Kids, co-authored with forest-school leader
  Kenneth Greenway, is all about hands-on
  appreciation of the wild world. “Nature is so
  tactile,” she writes. “There are always things
  for children to stroke, hold, touch or rub
  between fingers and smell.”
  Natural treasures picked up outside
  quickly find their way from pockets to
  bedrooms. Children are instinctive hoarders,
  busily curating their own miniature museums
  in boxes, on shelves, under the bed. Jones
  suggests they fill vases with conkers, acorns,
  pine cones and lichen-covered twigs, or use

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ben Hoare writes and edits

natural-history books and

magazines, and is a regular

contributor to our Wild Times

section. His latest book,

Nature’s Treasures, is out now

(DK, £20). Visit benhoare.com.

“ There are only

so many acorns

in a forest”

KELLY THOMAS, RSPB

Leaves, seeds, flowers and berries

are easily found objects that can

spark wonder at the natural world