The time of change

When the depopulation of the islands started after the war, the eider population declined. In the 1980s and 1990s, mink ravaged most of the old down shelters and only a few eiders were left in the houses and nests that the islanders built for them. Since the World Heritage status, the tradition has been taken up in more and more islands In 2016, 1273 birds nested in seven of the old downy forests and around 3200 nests were made. 18 birdtenders are working to preserve the tradition, compared to six or seven people when work on the World Heritage status began in 2000.

Peacock season

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

When Eider duck has found a suitable nest, she prepares it while her husband keeps her company. From May to June, the eggs are laid. Then the males leave the nesting sites, gather in flocks and go out to the reefs to molt (change their feathers). In September, they return.

Eider duck 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. When the chicks are out of the nest, they are warmed for a couple of days in the nest so that their down coat is dry. Then the dangerous migration to the sea begins. The black-backed gull hunts the chicks, and dangerous situations arise if the chicks get too far away from the mother, or if the weather is bad so that they do not hear warning signals. The chicks swim with the mother for the rest of the summer. She often gets good help in looking after the chicks from single 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 calm days. Cleaning one kilo of down usually takes a couple of weeks. The down is dried, shaken, roughly cleaned and finely cleaned. The finely cleaned is done by harping on a down harp, a frame strung with threads of fishing line or nylon thread. A wooden stick, a harp stick, is moved back and forth over the strings. When they vibrate, the clean down sticks to the strings and dirt and feathers fall off.

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 birdtenders , the Vegaøyan World Heritage Foundation and Nordland Eider Association has collaborated to renovate and build more e-houses. Vega School, Helgeland Museum and Vegaøyans Venner are also helping. the birdtenders repairing and building e-houses. As of 2016, there are over 3,200 e-houses in Vegaøyan, an increase of 30 percent over the last seven to eight years.

Among 6,500 islands In the Vegaøyan World Heritage Area, landowners have built houses and nests for eiders for more than 1,000 years – and looked after them throughout the breeding season. At most, each birdtender in Vegaøyan had more than 1,000 birds nesting in the eider houses which are locally called e-houses or eider house E-houses are the term for “detached houses,” while e-bans are eider houses where there is room for several nests (pictured).

The eider houses have varied in design, size and material, but in their many-sided form have been an important part of the cultural landscape. The population of nesting eiders in the old downy marshes is today only 1/10 of what it used to be, the number of houses is limited, and the tradition is therefore very vulnerable and exposed. The Vegaøyan World Heritage Foundation therefore took the initiative in 2007 for a separate project to increase the number of eider houses and ebans in Vegaøyan. The work has been done in collaboration with the birdtenders , while Nordland Eider Association has completed courses where, among other things, nest making and building eiderdowns have been on the program. In the summer of 2020, there were over 3,000 eiderdown nests in eiderdowns and eiderdowns on Vegaøyan, an increase of more than 30 percent since 2007.

Today it is 20 birdtenders with recruits who take care of the down tradition in eight of the 17 islands (archipelagos) that were previously protected as eiderdown islands . They go out on the islands in April to pull up seaweed for drying. The seaweed is used for nest building. the birdtenders then rebuilds the eider houses of stone or wood that have been destroyed by winter storms or that need restoration, digs out the old seaweed and makes new nests in the houses. Experiences about how the houses must be built in relation to weather, wind and the birds' preferences are action-based knowledge that has been passed down 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.