This evening Ayaan saw his first woodpecker. We were at the park when i heard the unmistakable tuk tuk tuk - tuk tuk tuk sound coming from somewhere behind me. A quick scan of the pine trees revealed the source - a Great spotted woodpecker. Ayaan was so curious to see what had caught my attention he literally jumped off a moving swing. At the same time he know he had to be quiet (thanks to all the squirrel watching we do). We saw the bird in action for close to 3-4 minutes. After it flew away, i was bombarded with questions. Why is it called a woodpecker, why does he make holes, does he like insects, why was his bum red?
Exhausting as his questions are, i try my best to patiently answer them. And i realize that he is getting more observant. That he noticed the red bum, tells me he was looking closely.
This was remarkably different from when we took him to Skansen last weekend. It is the world's oldest open air museum that also houses a zoo. I am not a fan of zoos, no matter how big or spacious they are. And till now we had avoided taking Ayaan to one.
The Nordics section of the zoo has Lynx, wolves, bears and moose amongst other animals. It was hot and the bears were out in the pool. Ayaan was excited for like 10 seconds and once he realized that the bears were not going anywhere and that he didn't have to be quiet, he lost interest. There were about 20 other people around us, and although there was no shouting or random acts to attract the bears' attention, there was considerable human activity outside the enclosure. The bears were oblivious to it all. They did have a big enclosure with all natural elements in it. Ironically the only thing unnatural in that enclosure were the bears themselves. Ayaan asked me just one question. Why is he playing with a ball?
Maybe he was tired, distracted by the crowd, or he sensed my disinterest in the animal. I dint think of it much until today.
As a mother i want him to experience the positive examples of everything.
I believe that freedom, like love, is hard to explain. To fully understand it, one has to either lose it or experience it in its true form. And watching my son quietly crouching under a tree observing a little bird reinforces my belief that there is nothing like seeing an animal in its natural habitat - wild and free.
I believe that freedom, like love, is hard to explain. To fully understand it, one has to either lose it or experience it in its true form. And watching my son quietly crouching under a tree observing a little bird reinforces my belief that there is nothing like seeing an animal in its natural habitat - wild and free.
