Forests provide many benefits. They purify the air, provide food and firewood. In forests live bears and deer, foxes and hares, raccoons and badgers, beavers and weasels…
If you stop for a moment in a pine forest and listen carefully, you'll hear:
Tap-tap-tap…
That's a woodpecker using its powerful beak to crack open a pine cone to feast on its seeds. Magpies chatter, blue tits chirp, and sometimes you can hear the heavy and frightening cry of an owl.
Forests can be deciduous or coniferous. In deciduous forests grow oaks and birches, alders and aspens, bushes of raspberry, blackberry and poisonous berries. Their clearings are covered with blueberries, wild strawberries and native strawberries.
In coniferous forests grow pines, cedars and spruces. Under the reliable cover of fallen needles you can find various types of mushrooms: porcini, chanterelles, slippery jacks and saffron milk caps.
And how many different flowers you can see in the forest! First appear snowdrops, followed by pasque flowers pushing through the earth, lilies of the valley, and buttercups. In each season of the year the forest captivates us with its beauty.
Once upon a time, such a marvellous story happened in the forest.
One day an ant decided to build a little house and live in it. He tried to lift a blade of grass — it didn't work, the ant was too small and the blade of grass too heavy for him. Then he found a wood chip. The chip also proved too heavy — he couldn't even budge it.
Where am I to live? How can I build a home?
The ant began to cry.
Come and live with us, the three of us can lift one blade of grass together, and five of us can manage a wood chip. Together it's easier and more fun to work and live!
Other ants called out to him.
The ant gladly agreed. From then on he lived in the ant colony.
Here's another story that happened in the forest.
A young sparrow grew tired of living in the sparrow flock. One autumn he left his brothers and sisters and flew to another forest. He decided to see the wide world. At first he liked the new place. He saw many new things he'd never encountered before. Only one thing saddened him — the local sparrows didn't welcome him.
One day he saw a flock of unfamiliar sparrows on a wide clearing, pecking at plant seeds. Feeling hungry, he joined them and started pecking too. Suddenly, all the sparrows attacked him, pecking him with their beaks so hard that feathers flew!
Plucked and offended, our sparrow barely made it back to his brothers and sisters in his home forest.
But they also chased him away, saying:
You abandoned us — now we don't want to know you!
Sad and lonely, the sparrow perched on a tree far from them.
That's what always happens when someone is ashamed of and betrays their family and loved ones.
There's another forest story. Here, have a read.
The nightingale sings best of all in the forest. Everyone loves his singing, which is why they affectionately call him 'little nightingale'.
Little nightingale, sing us your song.
The animals often asked.
Phew-eet, phew-eet, tr-r-r…
One thought gave him no peace.
He pondered:
"I've learnt to sing well, but I can't play any musical instruments".
And this upset him greatly.
In the same forest lived a bear. The animals loved this bear for his kindness and strength, and also because no one could play the balalaika like he could. When he'd strike the strings, everyone would dance — such cheerful and lively tunes the bear played.
Only he couldn't sing at all, no matter how hard he tried, all that came out was a deep:
Boo-boo-boo…
One day the bear and the little nightingale met. They shared their troubles.
Play something for me, mate, and I'll listen.
The nightingale asked the bear.
He really enjoyed the bear's balalaika playing. The little nightingale couldn't help himself — he began to sing along to the cheerful music.
The bear was amazed:
I've never heard a nightingale before. What beautiful singing!
From then on the bear and nightingale became friends and started performing together as a duo at forest concerts.
These are the incredible stories that happen in the forest with its inhabitants. Read fairy tales and your mood will always be good and uplifted.
