This Winter, Family Adventures and Memory-making are only a Footprint away!
Mooshy Moo the mushroom stared at the Deer Track (footprint) in front of her. She turned to her brother “Do you know what this means?”
Grumpus replied: “That you’ve found what you’re looking for and I can leave now?”
“No, silly” Mooshy Moo answered, “…that a Deer friend was standing right here awhile ago!”
Illustration from my tracking picture book Right Where You Are. You can order yours (and my other books) here!
Wait, have YOU ever thought about that?
If not, no worries… BUT if you do, you’ll open up a whole world of stories and adventure that’s right where you are (see what I did there?)
The art of tracking is more than footprints, it’s the subtle art of looking for, finding, and following animal clues. By finding where an animal brother/sister has walked, run, dug, eaten, slept etc, you can slowly read the stories of the landscape… whether that be your yard, a national park, or the woodlot down the street.
This is my all-time favorite quote about tracking, found on the back of Right Where You Are.
Cool... but that's a bit beyond me…
You might be thinking that. Perhaps you're saying to yourself: "I'm a suburban parent... I'm not Aragorn"
While that's true, I'm here to tell you that you CAN learn to read the land and know who was there and what they were doing... It's a thrill to follow footprints with your kiddo and figure out the story!
Here’s how to get started:
Just like any mystery, you need to figure out the: Where, When, Who, and Why. So:
Where to look:
Animals (and their tracks) are found in two main places: Larders and Lacks. A Larder is a food source, a Lack is an area of the environment that “lacks” a negative component (for example: a cave has a roof, so during a storm it “lacks” rain)
Page taken from my Sunday School Curriculum: Taking Sunday School Outside
A third place to look: trails/spaces in-between those things. Think the edges of habitats: the edge of the woods, the banks of a river etc.
When to look:
You can look for tracks and other animal clues anytime, but right after a good rain or snow is the BEST time! Of course, fresh-fallen snow is absolutely perfect for crystal-clear footprints, but good old-fashioned mud does the trick too!
Now THAT’S a lot of stories!
Who to look for:
Of course, this question depends on where you are… but the main tracks you’ll find close to home are people, dogs, cats, birds, squirrels, deer and perhaps an occasional possum or raccoon. I’ve got good news: I’ve made a handy tool for you to identify tracks and other cool things happening around you:
Print this off, fold it in your pocket, and go! (pay attention to the measurements by the tracks. Consider drawing a ruler on this paper) For a link to the original image, click here.
And now…Why?
Here’s the fun part… why do you think the animal brother/sister you’re following has gone where they went and done what they did? Figuring this out (your best guess) is so fun with your kiddos!
That’s it!
Doesn’t that sound fun? Finding and following mysteries every time you go to the park or even just in your own backyard? Get outside this winter (perhaps to one of our natural play areas) and get tracking with your little nature detectives… and tell me what happens! Send pictures and stories to my instagram @jaredthenatureguy