By Karie Lee Knoke
As the warmth of summer rolls in, the forest bursts forth with life and the invitation to reconnect with the expressiveness of nature, with each other and with ourselves. The time for community, for togetherness, and creating the kinds of memories that last forever. This is the season to unleash yourself and be wild again!
Step outside. Kick off your shoes and feel the earth beneath your feet. Hike a trail that leads to nowhere but wonder. Jump into an icy alpine lake. Sleep under a sky full of stars and wake to the orchestra of birdsongs instead of alarm clocks.
Do you know which birdsongs belong to whom? It’s an art of musical identification that takes a lifetime to master. My favorite songbird is the Swainson’s Thrush. It is the last migratory songbird to show up for summer and the first to leave as the mid-summer’s sun starts its retreat. Songbirds give us the perfect excuse to remember to listen.
I love to lie under the stars in my sleeping bag, just as dusk descends. I close my eyes and listen to the birds. Who will be the last to make its final call of the day? The bird on the right? No, the bird on the left. No, now I hear one off in the distance. Then the bird on the right chirps one more time. This goes on and on until . . . nothing but crickets.
Birds are nature’s alarm system. Knowing their songs and behaviors will give you clues that danger is nearby. The birds will tell you that hikers are coming down the trail, half a mile away. They may even warn you that a mountain lion is nearby.
Have you ever noticed that birds will be singing happily one moment, and suddenly they are silent? Peculiar as it may seem, this is a sign that a predator is so close that they don’t want to reveal their location. This is called the concentric ring of silence. Birds outside of the predator zone warn the rest of the forest that a predator is nearby, while the ones inside the predator zone are silent. If you ever experience this phenomenon, you may want to perk up your senses and look around.
Once, I was stalking quietly through the woods. I spent the morning sitting under a tree and observing nature. I got cold and decided to stealthily make my way back home. Suddenly, I stopped in my tracks. I noticed that the songbirds had stopped singing. I shamed myself for being too noisy and causing disruption in the forest, as I was being perceived as a predator.
Then, WHAM! It was as if someone grabbed my head and spun it around. I looked directly eye to eye with a mountain lion who was stalking me! I had spun around so fast, I startled it. It shook its head in surprise and scampered off as if embarrassed. Just then I realized that I was not the predator—I was the prey! The birds had warned me by their silence.
Nature teaches us if we are willing to tune into her silent, and not-so-silent, messages. It exists as a complex, interconnected web of relationships, where every element plays a vital role in the whole.
So, this summer, hear the call of the wild. Not alone, but rather find your people, gather your gear, and go. Sleep under the stars. Listen to the landscapes. And in doing so, you’ll gain not just wilderness skills, but stories of meaningful experiences. Because summer isn’t just a season, it’s an invitation to weave into nature’s wild community!
Karie Lee Knoke is a wilderness/primitive skills instructor and founder of Sacred Cedars Wilderness School. She was a contestant on the reality survival TV show, Alone Season 9, on the History Channel. Go to www.karieleeknoke.com for more information, or follow her on Facebook @SacredCedarsWildernessSchool or Instagram @karie_lee_knoke
