Tracking in the Wisconsin Northwoods – Nov 2023
We will be following the elk and the deer again in the Northwoods as the land is on the cusp of turning from leaves to snow. You never know what you are going to get and it’s always a full-body, full-brain adventure with our kith and kin. Trailing is a love song to Tracking. […]
Daily Routines in Tracking – The Importance of Repetition
I’m not trying to sell you our course, but to let you know that the processes we follow are really helpful (many of them, I’m revealing for free here in this Newsletter). That’s what we aim to be… helpful. We want more people to become trackers (and naturalists, guides, teachers, and scientists) because we believe […]
THE foundation of Tracking – Aging Tracks & Signs
When it comes to tracking, the most important thing to learn well, and the largest field to study (it’s endless, really) is track and sign aging. If you can tell that a trail is fresh, you’ll have more success following it and finding the animal. As a general rule, fresher tracks stand out more than […]
The “Secrets of Success” for Tracking – The Lost Trail Drill
When it comes to the trailing aspects of tracking, predominantly following and finding animals, even Master Trackers lose the trail. To me, that’s a refreshing idea. It makes me feel better about things when I lose the trail as a Senior Tracker, and it makes my students feel better when they hear this and when […]
Tracker Tuesdays #13, OriginalWisdom.com “News for Trackers”
October Answers to our #WeeklyTrackingChallenge Interested in online and correspondence tracking courses? Visit us at TrackerMentoring.com! Answer list: An African wildcat track from South Africa, Crested francolin feathers from South Africa, and Mud-dauber wasp sign collecting mud in Connecticut in the USA. (Sorry for the delay on these answers for October while I was defending […]
Tracker Tuesdays #11
Whoops, we slipped a bit! This newsletter covers questions posed in both July and Aug, 2020. We’ve moved to a monthly newsletter format for #TrackerTuesdays, so a new question SHOULD be posed every Tuesday, and answers SHOULD be published on the first Tuesday of every month. We apologize for the delay in publishing this one, […]
Tracker Tuesdays – Answers for June 2020
We’ve moved to a monthly newsletter format for #TrackerTuesdays, so a new question will be posed every Tuesday, and answers will be published on the first Tuesday of every month. Answer list: Spotted towhee from the Channel Islands in California; Namaqua rock mouse nest from the Republic of South Africa; zebra tracks from the Republic […]
Tracker Tuesdays – Week 9
Tracker Tuesdays – Week 9 Answers to our Daily Tracking Challenge This is a time to create and share content that engages, entertains, educates and inspires the world. HEADS UP, TRACKERS! Even though we aren’t out of the proverbial “woods” yet with this coronavirus pandemic, I need to start transitioning away from a #DAILYTRACKINGCHALLENGE. While […]
Tracker Tuesdays – Week 8!
Here’s a link to our newsletter at Original Wisdom, with detailed answers to our Daily Tracking Challenge. Answers for 20 – 25 May 2020 This is a time to create and share content that engages, entertains, educates and inspires the world. We post a question a day, except for Tuesdays because that’s Answer Day! Answer […]
Tracker Tuesdays – Week 7
Answers to our Daily Tracking Challenge This is a time to create and share content that engages, entertains, educates and inspires the world. We post a question a day, except for Tuesdays because that’s Answer Day! Answer list: Bennett’s wallaby tracks from Tasmania; grey squirrel tracks in snow from Connecticut in the USA; lilac-breasted roller […]
Tracker Tuesdays – Week 6
Answer Day for 13 – 18 May 2020 Answer list: puff adder (snake) trail from the Republic of South Africa; emerald-spotted wood dove tracks from the Republic of South Africa; pheasant cecal scat from southern England; mourning dove tracks from New England in the USA; white rhinoceros tracks from the Republic of South Africa; a Charops […]
Tracker Tuesdays – Week 5
Answer Day for 6 – 11 May 2020 Answer list: African tree squirrel tracks from the Republic of South Africa, two different sizes of caterpillar frass from the Republic of South Africa, European mole mounds from southern England, regurgitated pellets of an Abyssinian long-eared owl from Ethiopia, sapsucker feeding wells from New England in the […]
Tracker Tuesdays – Week 4
Q and A for 29 Apr – 4 May 2020 Answer list: scrub hare skull from South Africa; rainbow-koppie skink scat from South Africa; black bear tracks from the USA; leopard tracks from South Africa; fallow deer bed and tracks from England; Geoffrey’s cat scat up in a tree from Chile Amongst our global efforts […]
Ghosts in the darkness
I awoke the other night in the wee hours before dawn. It was extremely bright due to our moon waxing towards full. My bare feet padded silently to the window on the cool cement floor. I looked out upon a large grey body. I had to soften my vision to see her clearly, so closely […]
Eastern rock elephant shrews in the sunset
One of my favorite moments this winter here in South Africa was with a group of trackers from White Pine Programs from Maine in the USA. We did a sunset “sit spot” one evening in the Waterberg Mountains. Sit spots are just a time where you sit by yourself, in silence, and push your awareness […]
“Ledyard native a top international wildlife tracker” – The Day Newspaper
While in the USA recently, I was interviewed by a reporter, Amanda Hutchinson, from The Day newspaper in Connecticut. Here is a link to the article that just came out today: Ledyard native a top international wildlife tracker
The beauty of trailing deer… and some observations on track ageing.
I was recently in New England on a brief stopover home to visit family, and had a singular opportunity to get into the woods on some deer trails with Nate Harvey, who is also a Senior Tracker and Evaluator for CyberTracker. Nate is one of my mentors, and runs a trailing school in southern Vermont, […]
Tracking with White Pine Programs
I was recently invited to spend another blissful weekend feeding my tracking addition with like-minded folks at White Pine Programs in southern Maine. As an alumnus of their first ever Tracking Apprenticeship in 2007-2008, and a former Teaching Assistant for the program, I’ve been invited back for a few years now to help teach the […]
New Hampshire goes to Africa!
In the summer of 2015, students from Hopkinton and Bow High Schools (NH), went to South Africa to study the ecology and culture. We spent 21 days out on safaris, walks, on trips to the local villages and two days at one local high school – where we […]
Trailing, and an encounter with an elephant
Trailing, and an encounter with an elephant – UCONN Aug 2015 group We walked out of camp and into the South African sunrise. I stepped over the tracks of three big dugga boys (Cape buffalo bulls) who had recently headed in the direction that Lee had taken with the other students, and silently said a […]
Community service on Mandela Day! Hopkinton/Bow Student Blog #13
Community service on Mandela Day! Hopkinton/Bow Student Blog #13 Michelle Neal July 18th, 2015 Day 17 The following blog post is created by a Hopkinton/Bow High School student from New Hampshire, who is on program with Original Wisdom, partnering with Nature Guide Training, on a 3-week South African Ecology & Culture program at Djuma Game […]