Bird Language & Wildlife Tracking in Cougar, Wolf & Bear Country

This class is being co-sponsored by the WWU Outdoor Center. No college or other affiliation needed.

Please note that Meetup does not have an option for listing varying prices based on the number of people you are registering, but you can change the amount you pay before being redirected to PayPal, following this price schedule: 6 PM Evening Class Tuition Rates: Unaccompanied Minor $15.00. Adult $10.00 if paid in advance, or $15 at the door; Additional family members or friends $10.00 each. Email (chris@wolfcamp.com) or Call (http://wolfcamp.com/about/register/apply.html) us at any time with any questions, requests, or to register with a credit card.

Here's the itinerary for today from our website which you can also view at www.wolfcollege.com (http://www.wolfcollege.com/):

Before Class: Please arrive early in order to complete any registration information, view recommended books, and answer questions. It is super important that you receive some fundamental information that will be presented at the very start of class. Like no other subject we teach, our wildlife class builds upon itself minute by minute.

20 Minutes - Wolves, Cougars & Bears: We will start the first hour promptly with a safety overview for living, hiking, hunting and foragine in wolf, cougar and bear country. It is important to understand large predators and their prey in order to keep yourself safe, and to keep them safe in the wild. That's the crux of the matter: everyone wants to protect nature and themselves at the same time. The key is knowledge, and taking right action based on that knowledge. Also, wolves have returned to Washington & Oregon. So now, we have more than just cougars and bears to worry about. That sounds scary, but in reality, there will be fewer cougars and black bears because wolves will be competing on the same territory. Further, your behavior with all three of these carnivors should be similar when walking in nature, so again, you just have to learn about them to stay safe.

20 Minutes - Wildlife Trackers Training: We will continue with an overview on the Arts of Tracking in order to establish common goals and vocabulary which will be important when we go out later to search for tracks and other signs of animals. Kim & Chris will have arranged a "tracking scenario" consisting of track "cut-outs" to solidify your understanding of track identification, plus educated interpretation of what animals are doing. We will continue with a lecture on the characteristics of representatives of all the mammal families present between our mountains and the sea. You can get a jump-start on this information by checking out Wolf Journey Book III - Chapter 12 on Mammal Tracking (http://wolfcamp.com/wolfjourney/Book2Chapter07.html). Finally, and super important to tracking, but something that takes a bit of childlike bravery, we will choose some volunteers to demonstrate "animal forms" which are the way animals move, as this is a critical skill necessary to really understand how tracks get laid on the ground.

20 Minutes - Bird Songs, Calls & Alarms: As a transition into birds, we will discuss their tracks since we are likely to find sign of Great Blue Heron, Canada Goose, various raptors, gulls and smaller shore birds along muddy areas. We will also have a fascinating lesson on scatology in hopes of dissecting scat, owl pellets, and other droppings we come across in the second hour of class. Finally, we will overview the 5 categories of "bird language" which are key not only to identification, but to keeping yourself safe around predators in nature. You can get a jump-start on this information by checking out Wolf Journey Book III - Chapter 11 on Bird Voices (http://wolfcamp.com/wolfjourney/Book2Chapter07.html).

15 Minutes - Awareness Activities: In preparation for tracking birds and mammals in the second hour, we will practice using "wide angle vision" like owls do, plus "expanded hearing" like deer use to decipher whether sounds they hear in the forest are predators or friendlies, and the "stealth walk" like foxes teach us in order to move undetected in nature so we see more animals and experience their behavior as if we weren't there. Kids of all ages may even play a game called Cougar, Fox & Hare which is easy and fun, but brings you into a state of hyper awareness in nature. We like to say that if you bring home just one set of skills from tonight's class, that these awareness activities are it. They will help you see more wildlife, and keep you safer, in city and wilderness, than any other set of knowledge.

30 Minutes - Tracking Birds & Mammals: Tracking is really being an animal detective. Second only to increasing your awareness through the "animal form" skills we learned in the previous 15 minutes, it is the ability to ask the right questions, and recognize evidence for what it is, that will help you track animals in the wild. Of course, we want to get to the point where we can track anyplace, not just in those isolated places where tracks stand out in sand, snow, or mud. So we will explore the area and discuss live "sign" of all kinds. In order to help you open to a world of evidence that animals leave everywhere they move, we'll look for and discuss scrapes, lays, burrows, latrines, larders, nests, partial tracks, pressure releases, vegetative cuttings, and everything else we can find - even the condition of feathers to determine exactly how or if a bird might have been killed or injured.

15 Minutes - Trailing Birds & Mammals: You also have to be able to trail animals if you want to find them, so now that your eyes are adjusted to seeing sign, we're going to train you in the kind of trailing that real animal trackers use, keeping your head up and walking fast, identifying voices of the birds to know what is up ahead! In addition, feel free to ask questions about anything we talked about today, sign we say today and any other tracking-related information you're curious about.

Please Bring:

• Binoculars
• Flashlight, because it is easier to see tracks at any time of day or night if you have the ability to control the light angle. Tracks will really seem to pop out at you.
• Hats, warm clothes, and rain gear for the outdoor portion of class.
• Note-taking materials.
• Any of the other 10 Essentials you want with you. A great description of the 10 Essentials can be found at http://www.rei.com/expertadvice/articles/te... (http://www.rei.com/expertadvice/articles/ten+essentials.html) Classes follow field exercises from our Wolf Journey Earth Conservation Course, and topics through the Academic Year include the following themes:

October 24, 2012: Natural Navigation, Lostproofing & Orienteering (http://wolfcamp.com/wolfjourney/classitinerary/navigation-orienteering.html)
January 30, 2013: Wilderness Survival Skills & Emergency Preparedness February 27, 2013: Local Wild Edible Plants & Backcountry Herbal Medicine (http://wolfcamp.com/wolfjourney/classitinerary/herbal-medicine-and-wild-edible-food-plants.html)