Finnish nature and me: Can a moosefly get in one's ear?

 October 2022

Nature in Finland has kept its wildness and rawness, it is a cherished national heritage. Finns are aware of how beautiful it is and treat it with respect. It seems to me that the public's knowledge of nature is higher in Finland than anywhere else. It is common for people to know many species of birds, fishes, plants and other organisms, including their life strategies. Throughout the year, I always meet a lot of Finns with binoculars and cameras while walking in green areas in Helsinki.

It´s said Finns keep their distance and don't just randomly talk to someone on the street. Well, that doesn´t apply when having a binocular or camera in your hands and watching something in nature. It always happens to me when I´m surveying with Petri or observing alone waterbirds in Helsinki, or just photographing a mushroom, that people come to me. They ask what I see, what does it mean, they share what they have seen and so on. They just don´t want to miss anything interesting.

One must take into account that if there is wilderness, it also means that there may be a danger lurking. I mean not to be terrified but just to be aware what animals it is possible to encounter and how to prevent possible threats. When we were with Petri in the deep forest I heard some sounds around and  I said “Hopefully it´s not a wild board, we would have to climb on a tree”. Petri responded that worse would be a bear, because in that case climbing on a tree wouldn´t help. It made me feel terrified, and Petri calmed me that it´s only a low probability that bear would come to us, more likely it would observe us unnoticeably from a distance. Anyway, if we happened to see a bear, we'd have to stay calm. I know, it sounds unfeasible. Luckily, we haven´t met any bear, however it made me to realize how the nature is wild around me.

During autumn Petri needed to stay couple days in Hyytiälä in Central Finland where he had a course. The autumn was just in its most beautiful phase when leaves were playing with a wide range of colours. In Finnish there is even a name for autumn coloured landscape: “ruska”. And I wanted to see as much of it as possible. I accompanied Petri to his trip, we decided to take it as a vacation and stay a day longer after the course to explore the area. I was planning to do some berry picking while he would be at the course.

Hyytiälä

One day Petri asked me to join him and the students on an excursion into the forest, saying he had seen bunches of funnel chanterelles, in Finnish suppilovahverot, the day before. I could take a basket and pick them, he knows the places, it´s a clear thing. However, I didn´t realize how odd I would feel between students ready to get knowledge with my mushroom basket and box for lingonberry picking. I think I made the students a bit confused based on the looks they were sending my direction. They were probably wondering if I´m participating the course and not taking it enough seriously. When they stop and were listening some information and instructions for their exercise, I was searching around for suppilovahverot.

Soon I felt awkward enough, so I told Petri that I was leaving the group and going on my own. I had with me also my camera and I was making some shootings. After walking for some time I heard a rustling, and a huge capercaillie flew up. Beautiful, big bird, looking like a creature from some ancient times. I was enchanted, but I also remembered some stories I heard about crazy aggressive capercaillies who were trying to attack people. In some areas in Nuuksio, Petri was because of that during spring carrying a thick branch for protection. Even though it was already after capercaillie breeding season, so the probability of attacking me was low, I wanted to be safe so I found a big branch. I was so fully packed that I couldn´t have it in any defensive position. I was already holding mushroom basket, box partly filled with lingonberries, camera and as an addition the branch which I was clutching it in my armpit. As I was walking I every now and then bent down to pick up some berries for which I needed to put the branch on the ground. This eventually led to the loss of my branch.

After some more walking, I found a very good spot of ripe lingonberries and decided to stay there and pick for some time. I picked there a good amount of lingonberries, but unfortunately I also became a target for mooseflies. My hair has shade of brown which can be described as moose colour. This makes from my hair perfect habitat for these little creatures. However, lingonberries are worth it. But what raised my concerns was when I felt one moosefly fly into my ear. I think it really happened, but I can't swear to it. Anyway, Petri was later in our room lightning into my ear and repeating: “Can´t see anything. No moosefly in there”. But I felt something is there. I googled if it´s possible and I recommend not to search for this information. I found terrifying stories of people who had insects in their ears from camping, cycling, boating etc. One guy described how he was sure a beetle entered his ear while biking. His wife didn´t see there anything, but after couple months from his ear came out hardened forewings of a beetle with some blood and pus. Gross.

I don´t know if I still have some moosefly particles in my ear or if it didn´t happen at all. But when I remember it, I immediately feel something itchy in there.

Video from this trip: