Your Family can See the World through Owl Eyes
This Fall, our nature classes are exploring Animal Senses! I hear a lot about Wild Kratts in nature class (I loved me some Zoboomafoo back in the day!), so we are essentially learning lots of Creature Powers… that we can use! The following true story will help demonstrate some of the main senses we’ll be learning!
As I sat there on a bench at Tarpy Woods in Grandview, I watched the flowers of the small meadow dance in the breeze. At first, that's all I saw. My brain named the things around me: flowers, tall grass, some trees, the sky, clouds. Yup, seen all of these before!
A bit bored, I decided to use my animal senses. I had read Jon Young's Coyote's Guide to Connecting with Nature, and in it he recommended using the superb senses of animals to get a better idea of what's going on around you... so first up was using Owl Eyes: This meant opening my eyes wide like an owl, and sort of un-focusing... taking it all in, but snapping my attention to any spot I noticed movement... similar to how owls hunt mice at night.
I unfocused and took in the meadow. At first, I noticed leaves rippling in the sunlight, and then an animal: a brilliant blue bird flew up from a shrub onto a branch of the Walnut tree in the middle of the place. He hopped from branch to branch, then puffed out his chest and sang: "Help, help, fire, fire!" or something like that... this meant he was an Indigo Bunting! Wow!
Next, my Owl Eyes noticed more movement below: an ant! I watched her for a moment as she made her way across the path in front of my feet... she looked like she was on a mission as she climbed up and over each rock, stick, and piece of bark on her way somewhere important.
I decided then to switch to Deer Ears: cupping my hands with fingers together, I use the cups to careful push my ear slightly forward, forming "radar dishes" around my ears, similar to the large ears of a White-tailed Deer. This truly does enhance your hearing, and as I did so I head a faint "Buzzzzzz", and when I turned my head, I saw a cute, fuzzy bumblebee enjoying some nectar on a nearby flower. I looked closer and watched her quickly move pollen into her pollen baskets on her legs... it looked like she was wearing pollen pants!
Next, my Deer Ears heard distant cracking of branches and a slow, repeating crunching of leaves.... getting louder and louder bit by bit. I turned my whole body towards the sound... and saw nothing. I switched back to Owl Eyes and saw a patch of reddish brown between branches and leaves... a deer?
After patiently waiting quietly, I heard a single "thud" on the ground. Looking closer, I saw him: a buck White-tailed Deer... and he was looking back at me! I respectfully got up and back away, not wanting to scare him. He slowly stepped forward, with amazing stealth even for being so large. I watched with awe as he walked by the bench I had been on, then made his way through the meadow, nibbling this and that.
I had been sitting in the meadow, bored, but when I put on some animal senses.... wow! It turned out there were all sorts of stories going on all around me! I had always thought as a kid that I'd have to save up money and go to Africa or the Amazon Rainforest if I ever wanted to see cool animals, but 20 minutes of quiet paying attention at a park showed me... there's plenty of cool wildlife to see right here... you just need to know how to look!
You can do this too! At BFA, we are switching to our Animal Senses unit for Fall and we focus on 4 main animal sense to explore around us:
Owl Eyes, Deer Ears, Dog Nose, and Raccoon Touch
You now know how to use Owl Eyes & Deer Ears, here's how you use the other two:
Dog Nose: Close your eyes and point your nose up, take a big breath in through your nose. What do you smell? Open your eyes: can you follow a smell to its source? How many different smells are there around you?
Raccoon Touch: Raccoons have very sensitive fingers for finding food in murky water. Run your fingers slowly over a rock, or tree, or the ground. What do you feel? What's the texture like? Is there anything surprising you can feel but not see from far away?
Using these animal senses, you can get to know any outdoor space: a park, your yard, a single tree on the street, a flower in a pot or crack in the sidewalk... even your windowsill!
Try this this week: do a "magic spot", sit quietly in a safe spot outside... then, turn on your Owl Eyes & Deer Ears. Give it a few minutes... then, who shows up? Who has been there the whole time? Before you know it, animal brothers and sisters just start to appear... like magic!
If you try this out, let me know what happens! Message me on instagram @jaredthenatureguy. I look forward to hearing who YOU meet!
P.S. While you’re on my instagram, checkout all the other things I do: birthday parties, pollinator garden planning/planting, corporate trainings, seasonal nature adventures… etc etc! I’ve also written/illustrated 4 children’s books and a bunch more stuff! You can find those here!