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Old School Scoutcraft: The Moonshiner’s Telegraph by Mark Hatmaker

 


Preamble: Crew, this is one version of advance material from our upcoming volume on scoutcraft: Rough ‘n’ Ready: Old School Scoutcraft for New School Adventurers.

There are 3 versions of this material.

Version #1 is below and contains an approximate 3rd of the material.

Version #2 an expanded version will be released to the free newsletter subscribers.

Version #3 will be released to The Black Box Members Only forum and will feature the whole kit & kaboodle.

I tip my hand ahead of time to provide wiggle room for those who want to subscribe to the free newsletter.

You can do so here at the bottom of the page.

Or ponder jumping aboard The Black Box Brotherhood. Info here on the nine benefits.

The Moonshiner’s Telegraph

Birds have been used been used by canny scouts, moonshiners, ambushers, and hunters for eons to know when something is up. Being alert to changes in bird calls -kind of calls and silence itself-- can indicate an additional presence in the area [beyond your own.]

Early Indigenous Tribes and Frontiersmen used the birds as early warning systems, as did the Moonshiner’s of the 1930’s, it is from this cadre that we acquire the slang for this skill: The Moonshiner’s Telegraph.

An old woodsman’s proverb is: “When birds and bullfrogs go silent, become watchful.”

But there is more to reading the Moonshiner’s Telegraph than merely being alert for silence…

First, that whole “being alert for silence” thing; this is a gargantuan portion of the skill—not the silence itself but the alert at all times, the always awareness as opposed to situational awareness.

If one ain’t awake in all senses at all times—the The Alive & Thrumming Sensorium, well, all information that follows is for naught, one can detect no changes in ambience and environment if one has been oblivious from the word go.

[For more on the root skills of Opening the Sensorium see our Suakhet’u Program.]

Companion Calls

All bird species use a chatter amongst themselves when there is no alert. This chatter is known as Companion Calling.

Birds of the same species keep up an almost constant chatter, think of it as the correlate of you and your friends walking the trail and keeping up an almost constant conversation of small talk while you watch your step, maneuver around a log, step over that rock. You don’t so much announce what you’re doing as engage in low-grade small talk.

You are, in that instance, companion calling with your friends.

Amongst birds [and humans] it is in essence a “check-in” call signaling “All clear here” or “I’m still here, it’s OK on this end.” What we can learn here is that companion-calling is almost steady-state, when we find its absence or change in pitch or kind, then we start looking for signs as to why it dropped away.

“Dave, you’ve not said a word in a bit, everything OK?”

With birds, sometimes the dropping away is our presence as we go galumphing through the woods.

Sometimes, well, it is something else.

Many assume it is silence alone that is to be read from the Moonshiner’s Telegraph but to the wise woodsman, scout, raiding party, there are stages before silence, and if we only notice once it has gone to silence, it may be too late.

Alarm Calls

Again, one must be alive to moments. One can detect no changes in tune when one does not hear the tune in the first place.

Most birdsong is complex and/or melodic and signifies territory, mating calls, and community chatter, the aforementioned companion calling.

Prior to silence we often have an interim or transition call designated Alarm Calling.

Alarm Calling may proceed to silence, or it may be a brief, “Hmm, hey what’s that? OK stand down fellow birds, back to companion calling.”

It is analogous to you and your friends on the trail, one stopping to say, “Hey is that a bear over there?” You all stop to peer and offer things like, “A bear? Where?” “Up by that rock.” If it is a bear you act on the information, if it is not a bear, you go right back to discussing the most recent UFC [companion calling] as you hike on.

How to Tell the Difference Between Alarm Calls & Companion Calls

 Alarm Calls are typically short bursts for the following strategic reasons.

·        Young Birds need to be able to understand and master the call. Just as we would teach a child, “Run, Johnny, run to Mommy, now!” as opposed to, “Johnny, take evasive action and seek cover with all haste.”

·        Alarm Calls are typically of short-duration and avoid low pitches.

·        Why?

·        Too long a call and you give away location.

·        And low pitches travel further than high pitches—another location giveaway.

·        It is for this very distance covering reason that foghorns are pitched low and use long blasts-it allows ships to pinpoint location. The very opposite of bird alarm-call strategy.

·        Alarm calls can also be short, repeated bursts ala “Ak-ak-ak” or a switch to clicking sounds as opposed to standard companion calling.

The free newsletter version features Reading Bird Movement & Spotting Drones.

The Black Box Brotherhood Members-Only Forum details drills on how to read the Moonshiner’s Telegraph in your very own backyard and bring this skill alive to all environments be it woods or urban locale.

Resources for Livin’ the Warrior Life

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