Skip to main content

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

The Black Box Store

The Rough ‘n’ Tumble Raconteur Podcast

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Apache Running by Mark Hatmaker

Of the many Native American tribes of the southwest United States and Mexico the various bands of Apache carry a reputation for fierceness, resourcefulness, and an almost superhuman stamina. The name “Apache” is perhaps a misnomer as it refers to several different tribes that are loosely and collectively referred to as Apache, which is actually a variant of a Zuni word Apachu that this pueblo tribe applied to the collective bands. Apachu in Zuni translates roughly to “enemy” which is a telling detail that shines a light on the warrior nature of these collective tribes.             Among the various Apache tribes you will find the Kiowa, Mescalero, Jicarilla, Chiricahua (or “Cherry-Cows” as early Texas settlers called them), and the Lipan. These bands sustained themselves by conducting raids on the various settled pueblo tribes, Mexican villages, and the encroaching American settlers. These American settlers were often immigrants of all nationalities with a strong contingent of

The Empirical Fighter: Rules for the Serious Combatant by Mark Hatmaker

  Part 1: Gear Idealized or World Ready? 1/A: Specificity of Fitness/Preparation If you’ve been in the training game for any length of time likely you have witnessed or been the subject of the following realization. You’ve trained HARD for the past 90 days, say, put in sprint work and have worked up to your fastest 5K. Your handy-dandy App says your VO2 Max is looking shipshape. You go to the lake, beach, local swimmin’ hole with your buddies and one says “ Race you to the other side!” You, with your newfound fleet-of-foot promotion to Captain Cardio, say, “ Hell, yeah!” You hit the river and cut that water like Buster Crabbe in “ Tarzan the Fearless ” with your overhand stroke….for the first 50 yards, then this thought hits as the lungs begin to gasp for air, “ Am a I gonna die in the middle of this river?” This experiment can be repeated across many domains of physical endeavor. ·         The man with the newfound Personal Record in the Bench Press getting smoked in

The Original Roadwork by Mark Hatmaker

  Mr. Muldoon Roadwork. That word, to the combat athlete, conjures images of pre-dawn runs, breath fogging the morning air and, to many, a drudgery that must be endured. Boxers, wrestlers, kickboxers the world over use roadwork as a wind builder, a leg conditioner, and a grit tester. The great Joe Frazier observed… “ You can map out a fight plan or a life plan, but when the action starts, it may not go the way you planned, and you're down to the reflexes you developed in training. That's where roadwork shows - the training you did in the dark of the mornin' will show when you're under the bright lights .” Roadwork has been used as a tool since man began pitting himself against others of his species in organized combat. But…today’s question . Has it always been the sweat-soaked old school gray sweat suit pounding out miles on dark roads or, was it something subtler, and, remarkably slower? And if it was, why did we transition to what, and I repeat myself,