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.
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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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