The time of change

When depopulation of the islands began after the war, the eider population declined. In the 1980s and 1990s, mink wreaked havoc in most of the old downy shelters and only a few eider ducks were found in the houses and nests that the islanders built for them. Following World Heritage status, the tradition has been taken up on more and more islands. In 2016, 1,273 birds nested in seven of the old downy shelters and around 3,200 nests were made. 18 bird keepers are working to preserve the tradition, compared with six or seven people when work on World Heritage status began in 2000.

Peacock season

The bird watchers are out on the islands from April to July. In April, they collect seaweed that is placed on the rocks to dry. The seaweed is used in the nests, which are built from wood, stones and other available materials. Old seaweed and soil are removed before new, dried seaweed is made into nests. The purpose of making nests for the eider is to create an attractive and dry shelter. It protects the bird and at the same time keeps the dune clean and dry. If the duna is full of grass and moss, it becomes more time-consuming to clean.

Once ea has found a suitable nest, she prepares it while her mate keeps her company. From May to June, the eggs are laid. This is when the males leave the breeding grounds, gather in flocks and head out onto the reefs to moult (change feathers). They return in September.

Ea pushes the down from her chest and places it under and around the eggs to hide and warm them when she leaves the nest to drink or wash. Once the chicks are out of the nest, they are warmed for a couple of days in the nest so that the down coat is dry. Then the perilous migration to the sea begins. The blackback hunts the chicks, and dangerous situations arise if the chicks get too far away from their mother, or if the weather is so bad that they cannot hear warning signals. For the rest of the summer, the chicks swim with their mother. She often gets good help looking after the chicks from lone eider females.

World-class eiderdown

No duvet filling is as light and gives off as much warmth as eiderdown. Unlike duck and goose down, eiderdown has small barbs that hold it together. This gives it an insulation capacity in a class of its own. A total of 2,000 kg of pre-cleaned down is produced worldwide each year. Most of the down is machine-cleaned, but people in the down yards in Helgeland still carry out the time-consuming work of hand-cleaning the down. Drying and rough cleaning of the down must be done immediately, otherwise it will be ruined.

Most of the work is done on the islands in the summer, preferably on windless days. Cleaning one kilogram of down usually takes a couple of weeks. The down is dried, shaken, coarsely cleaned and finely cleaned. Fine cleaning is done by harping on a down harp, a frame threaded with threads of fishing line or nylon thread. A wooden stick, called a harp stick, is passed back and forth over the strings. When they vibrate, the clean down sticks to the strings and dirt and feathers fall down.

Scarecrow architecture

A special feature of the building stock in the world heritage area is the many e-houses and e-lanes (eider houses). The birdwatchers, the Vegaøyan World Heritage Foundation and Nordland Ærfugllag have worked together to restore and build more e-houses. Vega School, Helgeland Museum and Friends of Vegaøyan are also helping the birdwatchers to repair and build e-houses. As of 2016, there are more than 3,200 e-houses in Vegaøyan, an increase of 30 percent over the past seven or eight years.

For more than 1,000 years, landowners have been building houses and nests for eider ducks on 6,500 islands in the Vegaøyan World Heritage Area - and looking after them during the breeding season. At most, each bird keeper in Vegaøyan has had more than 1,000 birds nesting in the eider houses, which are known locally as e-houses or e-lanes. E-house is the term for "single houses", while e-lanes are eider houses with space for several nests (pictured).

The eider houses have varied in design, size and use of materials, but have been an important part of the cultural landscape in their varied forms. The population of nesting eider ducks in the old dunes is today only one tenth of what it was, the number of houses is limited, and the tradition is therefore very vulnerable and exposed. In 2007, the Vegaøyan World Heritage Foundation therefore initiated its own project to increase the number of oak houses and oak fields in Vegaøyan. The work has been carried out in collaboration with birdwatchers, while the Nordland Eider Society has held courses on nest building and the construction of earthen paths. In the summer of 2020, there were more than 3,000 eider nests in Vegaøyan, an increase of more than 30 percent since 2007.

Today, there are 20 bird keepers with recruits who preserve the down tradition in eight of the 17 rams (island groups) that were previously protected as down rams. They go out to the islands in April to pull up seaweed for drying. The seaweed is used for nest building. The bird watchers then rebuild the eider houses from stone or wood that has been destroyed by winter storms or is in need of restoration, dig out the old seaweed and make new nests in the houses. Experience of how the houses must be built in relation to weather, wind and the birds' preferences is action-based knowledge that has been passed on for generations.

It will be crucial for Vegaøyan's World Heritage status that the eider houses are used in the future as hiding places for the nesting eider and that the action-based knowledge about eider architecture is continued. It is also an important goal that the number of houses and nesting birds increases from year to year, so that the cultural landscape, tradition and population are safeguarded. By increasing the number of birds, the tradition can also provide income and a basis for value creation. Eiderdown has been - and remains - an exclusive commodity.