Going to your sit spot is one of the core routines that we teach at Wilderness Awareness School. It’s a simple, powerful experience that enables you to be more present and connected in your day-to-day life. It can be really fun to have permission to simply sit, observe, and be present. It doesn’t take much […]
I still remember very clearly the first 24 hours after my first daughter was born. All of the reality seemed lit by an incredible light, and I felt like a different person. I remember dropping my wife and our newborn Katie off at the house and then getting ready to rush to the grocery store. […]
I began this program with a relationship to fire similar to others who have grown up camping and enjoying the occasional winter night by the living room fire. I loved playing music with friends and family around a fire pit at the campsite. I loved making a fire in the fireplace on a chilly December […]
Imagine for a moment that first day of spring, when you wake up in the morning and the sun is rising in the east, the new green plants and shoots are emerging from the earth. The lovely songbirds have returned from their winter migration and are singing in the bushes outside your house. This is […]
Feeding wild birds doesn’t have to be expensive but once you start you should not stop feeding during the winter, once the birds become used to your feeding stations. You can stop feeding in the spring once insects and other fruits become available. Once most people start feeding wild birds, they don’t want to stop […]
Listening to birds and watching bird behavior allows us to become aware of animal activity, to sneak up on wildlife or unsuspecting friends, and to enhance our senses. In my year at Wilderness Awareness School’s Immersion program, in Duvall, Washington, I explored the school’s teachings about birds, bird watching, and awareness. Here I’ll share some […]
Bird Language is a big passion of mine, so I’m always keeping my eyes and ears open for mysterious bird alarms on the landscape. It’s always really exciting on those occasions when I hear an alarm, especially when I can use that to predict exactly where an animal is, what that animal is likely to […]
A Redstart gleams glossy black and is gone. Kinglets trickle past me, their high calls scattering south. Bird migration is in full swing. The birds may be finding their way by seeing the magnetic fields of the earth by virtue of magnetite crystals in their brains, internal compasses that let them perceive magnetism as we […]
Before the advent of airplanes, people mimicked the design of bird skeletons in hopes of achieving the freedom of flight. A great many flapping and gliding contraptions were conceived and tested, endeavors that yielded only a sense of disappointment and a few good lessons about flight dynamics. Others involved in similar experiments were far less […]
I find it amusing that I’m sometimes labeled an “urbanite.” It’s amusing because I’d never label myself that way. Why? Because not two days before writing these words, I was sitting on my back deck at dusk and a white-tailed buck sauntered across my yard within 20 feet of me while in the hollow oak […]