It was the first day of the Winter Break camp. We had just had a little more than a dusting of snow come down over the past couple days. Enough snow to find some fresh and older tracks in the snow. I knew we were in for some good tracking today. Did the kids know? I am not sure, but none of us could have expected what was going to happen today!
The day started out pretty normal, the first day of camp excitement, meeting some new kids and seeing the “usuals” that come to all of our camps. Going in for the opening circle, signing a song or two and giving the kids the usual spiel of our 3 agreements and what to expect during the week of camp. Of course we had to play a couple rounds of tree charge and have our snacks before we headed out on our wander onto the land. With a brief stop at the porta potties, we were finally set for adventure!
Today both the bigs and littles groups just happened to be headed in a similar direction at the same time, so we all decided to wander together in a group of around 25 people. We were headed for the Pines!
A straight walk to the pines would take any casual walking adult about 5 - 10 minutes, but when you have little feet and legs and lots of layers on to shield you from the cold, it can take you quite a while longer.
As we passed the railroad tracks, I tuned into my body radar, sensing where I wanted to lead the group. I spotted an area that I often have seen skunk tracks and decided that we would start there. Before we made our way through the old fence and into the Plantaintion of old Scots Pines and younger White Pines, we had to have a chat. A group of 25 people can make a lot of noise and I was keen on seeing something today! We took a few moments to talk about listening to the sounds of the forest and being quieter so we do not scare everything away. We talked about moving slower so we don't just bulldoze our way through the forest.
When they were ready, we headed in…..
It wasn’t too long before we came upon our first sign of wildlife in the snow. It was a somewhat large area of ruffled up pine needles on the forest floor. It looked as if something or more likely multiple things were scratching and ruffling up the ground. There was no snow on top of the needles that were scratched at, but snow on the ground that was untouched.
I had a pretty good idea of what had caused this but I wasn't ready to tell. It was time for questioning the kids. What do we think happened here? What animal could have done this? Why would it want to do this? The answers came piling in, some were close or pointing towards the answer and others were way off. It didn’t really matter. The point was they were beginning to learn how to read and interpret the story of the tracks and sign on the landscape.
This sign on the land looked somewhat fresh to me, as in, it had happened this morning. I knew there was more to find close by, so I was still not ready to give any answers.
We continued moving and had not gone 30 feet before someone found a set of tracks. Multiple sets of tracks. The tracks had 3 toes pointing forward and 1 smaller toe pointed backwards but slightly on an angle. The kids knew right away that it was some kind of bird and a big bird at that. Guesses started flying out until someone finally shouted,”It's Turkey!” They were right, it was a Turkey and those marks in the pine needles we had just come across were the Turkey’s scratching at the ground to look for food.
Fresh Turkey Tracks! Let the Trailing begin!!
We had a brief talk again about trying not to disturb the area by staying quieter and moving a bit slower. Also about not stepping on the tracks. Once you step on the tracks they are destroyed for good!
We started moving again, but this time was different, some of the kids were in stalk mode and their awareness was now on finding these Turkeys that could be close by. The hunt was on!
We followed the tracks as they moved through the different sets of Pine plantations. Plantation turned into meadowy Buckthorn and sparse Tamaracks and back into Pine plantainton. The Turkeys would stop in each strip of Pine plantation to scratch around looking for food. We were counting about 5 or 6 different sets of Turkey's tracks.The longer we followed the tracks, the fresher the tracks and scratches looked. We stopped to examine another area that had been scratched up and to wait for some of the little legs and very slow walkers in the back. We started to experiment with the pine needles by ruffling up untouched ground to see how it compared to the areas that were scratched by the Turkey’s. We examined how much fresh moisture was on the soil compared to how much was starting to freeze (the first set of scratches we found, the moisture in the newly uncovered soil had started to freeze over). Both the Turkey scratches in this new area and the areas that we had just scratched were looking very similar (still wet compared to frozen). Which meant, those Turkey’s were not too far away as the moisture had not yet had time to freeze.
I was no longer leading this tracking expedition, the kids were. The enthusiastic ones in front could barely be contained. They were fully in this!
We trailed them to the place where the Plantation ends and it turns into a very wet meadow area. We lost the trial and were well over an hour into our wander at this point. We knew it was about a half hour straight walk back to camp. It was getting close to the time to call this.
Some of the kids were determined to find the trail and continued looking while the instructors talked about what to do next.
“I found them!” I found the Turkey tracks!” One of the children yelled from the meadow area. This wasn’t over just yet!
I was not ready to turn back and some of the children were not going to give up on this trail.
We took a short break and came up with a plan. Those that wanted to continue tracking could go ahead for a little longer and those that did not want to go, or who were tired could stay in that spot, rest or play a couple rounds of Owl Eyes.
About 15 of us decided to carry on and find those Turkeys!
We were on a trail that we use often, that leads to a very small bridge over a creek and leads out to what we call the abandoned house.
Most of the Turkey’s cut off the trail into the long grass area but one stayed on the trail. We followed the lone Turkey not 50 feet from where we left the rest of the group. I was in front and stopped because I no longer saw the tracks. One of the kids spotted the trail as it took a sharp turn off the main trail and into the grasses. We all took about 2 steps in that direction and boom! That Turkey burst from its hiding stop in the grasess about 5 feet from where we were all standing!
(Bob King / rking@duluthnews.com)
For a moment we were all awe struck (of course after the initial jump back reaction of a very large Turkey bursting from the grasses hidden close to your feet and making an explosion of a sound with their wings)!
After that moment of awe, it was an eruption of enthusiastic yips,howls and I told you so’s.
I expressed to the children how rare that moment was. It is not often that as a group we actually trail an animal and get to see it. Especially from 5 feet away!
We had all just experienced something profound on that adventure, something ancient, something all of our ancestors did at one time. We did something that is embedded into our DNA so deeply, it enlivens our body and mind as we do it. We did something simple that day. We tracked an animal… and hopefully those kids were touched by that experience just enough to continue on that journey towards becoming a student of the natural world, and continue to follow the tracks and trails of the animals.
