Birds of Play: Outpets, #2

By Cristina Berna and Eric Thomsen

If you like animals and want to give your child the experience of meeting animals you should consider having outpets.

Birds of Play will show you some places in Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, where you and your family can enjoy meeting birds as outpets.

Activities like feeding ducks creates an important bond between a child and the natural world and it stays with them long after the activity is over. If done the right way, it won’t impact heavily on our native fauna.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Missys Clan
• Release date: Feb 10, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386121817

Cristina Berna

Cristina Berna liebt das Fotografieren und Schreiben. Sie schreibt, um ein vielfältiges Publikum zu unterhalten.

Book preview

Also by the authors:

Missy’s Clan – The Beginning

Missy’s Clan – Christmas

Missy’s Clan – Education

Missy’s Clan – Kittens

Missy’s Clan – Deer Friends

Missy’s Clan – Outpets

Missy’s Clan – Outpet Birds

Luxembourg – a piece of cake

Deer in Dyrehaven – Outpets in Denmark

Copenhagen vehicles – and a trip to Sweden

Construction vehicles picture book

Florida cakes

Florida Outpets

More titles planned

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Published by www.missysclan.com

Cover picture: My friend the Bachelor ©Berna 2015.

Ducks in Christiania canal ©Berna 2015.

Guineafowl in Tivoli Gardens ©Berna 2016.

About the authors

Cristina Berna loves photographing and writing. She also creates designs and advice on fashion and styling.

Eric Thomsen has published in science, economics and law, created exhibitions and arranged concerts.

Deer in Dyrehaven

Dyrehaven North of Copenhagen offers fantastic opportunities to enjoy the sight of deer - and it is absolutely FREE!

Dyrehaven was originally established as a royal hunting ground.

Dyrehaven is also home to the World’s oldest ongoing amusement park – BAKKEN. This amusement park has many rides, restaurants, ice cream shops and a traditional variety of food stalls and restaurants.

Outpets are animals around us, and who are not pets in the usual understanding. Interaction with animals has great therapeutical and educational value. Teach your children to enjoy and respect the animals and to enjoy them as outpets.

Book filled with the author's own pictures.

What we saw you should also be able to see!

Join the many millions who visit Dyrehaven – in spite of it not being crowded!

Preface

If you like animals and want to give your child the experience of meeting animals you should consider having outpets.

Activities like feeding ducks creates an important bond between a child and the natural world and it stays with them long after the activity is over. If done the right way, it won’t impact heavily on our native fauna.

Outpets are defined below. Basically, they are the animals around us and with whom you can interact – for your benefit and for their benefit as well.

There are many places around the World where you can enjoy outpets.

It is especially important if you live in a city. People who live close to Nature have a lot more opportunity to meet and interact with animals. Therefore, you need to consider the access more carefully when you live in a city.

Perhaps you live in a house, maybe even with a big garden and maybe you have the opportunity to have your own pets. But that does not preclude you from having outpets. Suburban gardens are rich in small birds supported by owners.

This little book will show you some places in Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, where you and your family can enjoy bird outpets.

The book is a sequel to Florida Outpets and is ordered by bird species.

We also invite you to read Deer in Dyrehaven, which takes you to the grand Royal deer park North of Copenhagen, where you can enjoy the animals absolutely FREE – there is no entrance fee and it is open all year round.

We hope you will have and give a pleasant time with the animals around you.

Cristina & Eric

Outpets

Let us first introduce you to the term outpets.

Definition of outpet

"An outpet is a wild animal living out in your garden or close by where you live for your intermittent enjoyment and company and sometimes you share food with them. It is not domesticated but is used to your presence. It is opposed to domesticated pets, working animals, sport animals, livestock, laboratory animals and pure wild animals. It is there for its own sake and also for your enjoyment, but it is not kept for performance, agricultural value or research. It is not kept at all but live there together with you. The most popular outpets are birds, squirrels, deer, hedgehogs.

Some animal rights organizations have raised concern over pet-keeping with regard to the autonomy of animals, but with outpets you enter a larger ecosystem.

Outpets commonly provide their humans relationships with emotional benefits and provide income for outpet food vendors. Outpet therapy provides resident humans with an alternative to companionship animals, which can be prohibited by the homeowner’s association."

Source:  Missy’s Clan

Some birds like the chicken and the peacock do not fully meet the definition, because they are domesticated although they are not your pets and they may not even be anybody’s pets.

You could say they are borrowed or temporary pets, as you interact with them as you would with your own pet, but usually for a short period of time.

Some of them are also not very pet like – and are included because of them being interesting from our point of view. Interest, love and respect for Nature is fundamental if our children are to have the same chances as we have had to enjoy the beautiful biodiverse World and help save it from us, the humans.

Pigeons

Everything usually starts with the pigeons.

Actually, it started with the Great Egret (see Florida Outpets), but here, we mean.

Almost everywhere there are pigeons, and they like being fed. They are often used to being fed. Even though the city fathers are annoyed with them. It is so enjoyable for children to watch the pigeons and watch the feeding. The cooing and clucking, the eagerness, the enjoyment of food, the scampering.

Pigeons (Columbae) by the moat at Torvegade, Copenhagen. ©Berna 2015.

Often this is the first contact children have with animals.

One of the reasons is the crowdedness in the city. If you don’t have a house and garden, where do you put the pets?

This is where outpets come in.

You can have outpets and enjoy them without needing a house and garden. You just need to find out where they are and go and enjoy them.

––––––––

Pigeons and doves are probably the most common birds in the World. You can find them almost everywhere. The difference between dove and pigeon is not precise, but dove is usually used to refer to a white bird, and pigeon is used about all the others.

White doves are symbols of peace and of love and white doves are to ones used by magicians to conjure up animals from a big hard hat.

The pigeons in the cities is the feral pigeon (Columba livia domestica). They are domesticated pigeons that have reverted to the wild many years ago. 

The domesticated pigeon (Columba livia domestica) is actually the Rock Dove or Rock Pigeon (Columba livia) which was originally found in Europe, North Africa and West Asia. It has two black bars on its wings and use cliffs for nesting. It is monogamous and usually has two squabs (chicks) per brood.

The Rock Pigeon was domesticated perhaps 10,000 years ago, and is mentioned in Mesopotamian clay tablets 5,000 years ago as well as in Egyptian hieroglyphs.

Pigeons have incredible homing instincts which were used in communication, not least important in war. Their instincts are also used in the sport of pigeon racing. This was an important means of communication before the telegraph and now the mobile phone and internet was invented.

Pigeons (Columbae) are often the first and maybe the only contact children in the city have with the animal world. ©Berna 2015.

The navigational, homing instincts of pigeons have not been fully understood yet. Pigeons are not a migratory species,

Reviews for Birds of Play

[Henrik Thomsen · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Very nice book I like all the photos is that your son?
Henrik S Thomsen