Amber catching and bird watching on the shores of the Baltic Sea

The Lithuanian camp for participants of the Baltic Sea project was held on July 10 - 12. Therefore, the location of the port city Klaipėda and the Curonian Spit, was not chosen by accident.

The camp began with a theoretical introduction to the values of protected areas, which was presented to us by Raimonda Ilgine, a junior researcher at Klaipėda University. Later we traveled to Karkle, where with amber fisherman Igor Osnach we learned how to distinguish real amber from artificial pieces, recognize inclusions, and just by looking at the sea, to tell if the waves would bring a lot of amber or not and to notice in which wave amber is hiding. On our way back we traveled five kilometers by foot, on our way to visit Holland's Cap, a WWII bunker, and of course looking for amber thrown down the coast.

On the second day, we visited the protected areas that we discussed previously. We traveled through the Curonian spit national park cross-section. We visited the seacoast, the Parnidis dune, the forest and finally reached the sea. We learned a lot of interesting things from the park worker Kornelia Dambrauskiene about the culture of the region too - traditional boats, and traditional weathercocks.

Then we traveled by bus in Smiltyne, where ornithologist and guide Viktorija Šiaulytytė was already waiting for us. She taught us how to find gulls and seagulls, and how to recognize the voices of  blackbirds and finches. At the same time, we also noted that the bird seen along the way is not a penguin who escaped from the Maritime Museum, as we thought at first, but a great cormorant whose colony also is one of the most famous objects in the Curonian Spit.

Together with Viktorija, we got on a ferry and continued our journey around Klaipėda. We watched the chain bridge rolling over, and understood its importance to the castle. On our way to the more modern part of the city we came across many animal and human sculptures and saw the famous ship Meridian. When we returned to the dormitory, we made the model of the sundial which we had seen in Nida and sketched many other objects to find out how they worked.

The last day we started with a visit to Klaipeda University. While the older students explored the institute's labs with Greta Srebiene, the youngest participants visited the Museum of Nature. Here, among the many stuffed animals, Modestas Bruzas learned what ducks look like while feeding under water, which bird pretends to be a snake, how many loafs of breads cuckoo lended to hoopoe and what is the third leg of woodpecker.

Then we drove to the botanical garden. During the excursion we saw many exotic plants growing there, and after tasting mulberry berries and smelling sages, we traveled to listen to the sounds of the underwater world. We learned about the challenges facing seals in the Baltic Sea and how much they are like us.

Finally, tired but happy we split up to go home. All ten schools traveled to their different cities. No matter in which city we do live, the Baltic Sea and the lessons learned in the camp touch us all. We are proud to live in a maritime state!

Gretė Vaičaitytė
BSP Coordinator of Lithuania