EarthTracks

When I first started going to my sit spot about 8 years ago, I had no idea that I would see a fox in the city. I actually had no idea what I’d see or learn from this experience. However, I wanted to learn more about nature and this was part of the Kamana Naturalist Training Program from Wilderness Awareness School… So I choose a spot right across the street in a wooded area for were I lived. I searched the area and found a good spot to sit.

Following the routines in the Kamana Program I started to learn and explore the area around my sit spot. I started tracking in a few areas that had good sandy soil. To my surprise I found really small dog tracks and scat. At first I thought it was one of the neighborhood dogs, but the scat was different. It had hair and berry seeds in it. I was pretty sure that it might be a Gray Fox. However, what would a Gray Fox be doing here in the city? Where would it live? How could it survive?

I finally got a glimpse of the Gray Fox when I was coming home late one night. It was incredible, at first I just couldn’t believe what I had seen. However it was good to know that the tracks and scat I was looking at proved to be Gray Fox. It would take me several weeks of going out and sitting at my spot before I would see the Fox in the woods. I was always able to find some tracks, or scat that told me the Fox had been through. I still had many questions and no answers. I learned later on that having more questions than answers was part of being a tracker and a naturalist.

My first sighting came late evening. I was heading out to my spot when I heard a noise and spotted the tail of the Fox heading into the bushes and disappearing down the hedgerow. I felt I was finally getting closer to seeing the Fox it was exciting to know that an animal like that was living here in the city. It opened my eyes to realizing that nature is all around us and will find a way to survive and live if given the chance. I was starting to feel a shift in the way I felt about living in the city and about how I felt about the Earth.

Then it happened. My first real good sighting of the Fox. It was Early one morning in the fall .I was heading out to my spot early before dawn. I wanted to be at my spot before the dawn chorus started. I was fox walking out to my spot when I had a gut feeling that I should sit down. I slowly started to kneel down and wanted to try and get my eyes really working in wide angle vision. That’s when I spotted three small black objects about 30 feet away from me. I couldn’t quite make out what they were, but deicide that sitting down, even though I wasn’t at my sit spot, and I was out in the open was a good idea.

I was sitting still and maintaining my wide angle vision. The back objects were slowly moving closer to me, but were about 30 feet away. As the sun started to come up I heard the birds start to sing and the noticed that the black objects were really a female Stripped Skunk and two young. I watched them as they got within 20 feet of me. They were digging up grubs as they slowly moved across the field. They didn’t care that I was there.

It was actually very cool to watch them and be so close. By this time the sun was up and I could see better.

I saw some move out of the corner of my eye. It was standing around the edge of the hedgerow, out in the open. I saw the Gray Fox, it standing about 35 to 40 feet away from me and looking directly at the skunks. It was incredible. I remember thinking, you don’t want these skunks to eat…it might not be good. My heart was racing as I watched the Fox. It was an awesome sight. I had seen a Gray Fox right in the middle of the city.

The Fox stood there looking around, smelling the air and listening to everything. It finally decided that the skunks weren’t worth the trouble and some strange two legged human was watching him. The Fox turned and disappeared into the hedges without a sound.

Little did I know then, the impact that this little Fox would have on my life.

Animal Tracking Basics by Jon Young and Tiffany Morgan

www.jonyoung.info

www.wildernessawareness.org

Jon Young is the founder of Wilderness Awareness School and developed the Kamana Naturalist Training Program. He also apprenticed under Tom Brown Jr. for several years as well as Ingwe and other elders. I can say that Jon Young and his programs have had a big influence on my tracking and nature training. So I was surprised to come across his book at the bookstore and very eager to start reading. I really enjoyed this book and would highly recommend it. Most tracking books are just about the print, measurement and identifying. This book actually helps you build a foundation to enjoy nature as well as tracking skill. Every Naturalist would benefit from this book. It has so much information about developing your senses, awareness, and covers what I call the Core Routines. I wonder where I got those? (Kanama of course!) It also has a great section on Bird Language that all Birders will like. I highly recommend this book!

I was talking to a university professor about native cultures and how they would pass down knowledge. One of the comments made by the professor was “My students are always wanting the answer. I want them to seek the question. I want them to learn to ask the question.”

Tom Brown Jr. uses the term “coyote teaching” a method of teaching that is about drawing the student into the experience by asking questions and many times leaving the answers for the student to find, and then asking another question. This is a teaching method found in many traditional cultures, usually with the elders asking questions and guiding the experience. The following is from a workshop taught by Charles Worsham.

Seven Stages of Natural Learning

observe - just look - take the time for careful observation.

see patterns and relationships - careful observation will help you to see what is similar.

wonder - take time to think about what you are wanting to learn. Ask questions for yourself and spend time wondering about the questions.

investigate - find the answer to you questions through investigating.

learn - learn by doing, trial and error, and working to solve the problem.

correct mistakes individually and with guidance - through your investigating and research find out what works and what doesn’t. Ask for help and guidance but only after you’ve worked the problem for yourself.

learn that there is more to learn - a passion for learning is never quenched. Jon Young (founder of Wilderness Awareness School) said, “I always leave the field (from tracking) with more questions than answers. “The questions should drive you through this learning process. It is something you are never finished with. “The greater the need the greater the result”, I always been told.

I need to find the answers to my questions it is driven by my desire to learn. I think that being curious is a natural part of life.The final bit of wisdom that Mr. Worsham passed along to us is that in the end you must let go of your system of learning and move beyond it. What works for you may not work for someone else. So any system of learning must fall away and only the individual remains. Everything changes and learning is a process not an end result.

Just recently on the River Otter project I’m working in Missouri I was able to locate not one, but three different latrine in one day by using my sense of smell.  I wasn’t able to see because of the thick vegetation, until I moved to the river bank, but you could smell them.  I had learned the value of using smell when I attended Paul Renzedes winter tracking course.  We worked on smelling coyote, fox, bobcat and other urines and scats.  It was very interesting and started me paying more attention to smells.  I later attended a tracking course presented by Charles Worsham.  At the time it was one of my more difficult courses, but it had an incredible influence upon the way I track.  He had us smelling tracks, not just urine and scats, but actual tracks.  Try it, just close you eyes and smell the world around you.

I do the same basic demonstration that Charles did for us in my own tracking workshops.  I’ll make a track in pine needles, grass, leaves, dirt any substrate will do.  Then start by smelling the ground away from the track, and then slowly move toward it, until you are directly overhead.  Continue until you are past the track on the other side.  It is a simple, yet fun exercise to do.  Next blindfold yourself and repeat the drill. Can you find the track?

My friend Cordell and I were out tracking in the sandhills.  When we started to head back to camp we noticed fresh coyote tracks, so fresh that they were actually in one of Cordell’s boot prints from 30 minutes ago.  I wanted to see if I could smell the freshly disturbed soil.  I was surprised not only to be able to smell the track but to smell the coyote from the track that was just made.  I couldn’t believe it.

Smell ya later!

Late one evening I was sitting in the woods listening to the sounds of nature. The sun was starting to go down beyond the horizon, so I decided to head for home. On my way back I noticed a lot of bird activity and chatter coming from the tree line where an old fence used to be. I stopped and started to observe what was going on. I saw all these little brown birds (mixture of sparrows, etc) hooking up into the trees about 4 to 5 feet up off the ground. This started moving down the old fence line in a rhythmic manner. The little brown birds were hooking up and as others moved up into the trees the others would come back down. I thought for a second, What could be causing this to happen?  Then it dawned on me the gray fox that I had observed days before must be moving on the other side of the narrow tree line hunting. So I took off moving quicker now hoping to get a glimpse of the fox and see if I was right. I went through the opening where the old gate used to be and rounded the corner. Sure enough I came face to face with that fox. We were about 15 feet away from each other when I stopped dead in my tracks. This gray fox is the same fox that I’ve had several encounters with and was somewhat of a friend and teacher. I finally sat down and to my surprise the fox sat down and we just looked at each other. After sitting awhile I stood up, and so did the fox, I think my teacher was actually smiling, giving me some acknowledgement for paying attention to the birds. We both turned and went our separate ways. I was thankful for what I learned from the birds and the fox that evening.

Learning bird calls, songs, body posture and movement (bird language) can open your awareness to what’s happening in the woods that you may not be able to see. Try this sometime, go to a city park and watch the birds and how they react to people as they walk or jogs pass you.