Come spend a day with Earth Native Wilderness School exploring the language of the birds; whether you have been a birder for life, or you don’t know an eagle from a sparrow, this course is for you. Interpreting bird language entails understanding what birds are saying and how they are saying it, and is an ancient skill that people have used to help them survive and thrive for thousands of years. Birds are the news media of the ecosystem as they describe where food, water, shelter and most importantly, where danger is located. They are keenly aware of their surroundings and often very vocal about what they observe (especially songbirds), and put an audible soundtrack and visible body language to the happenings in the landscape around us, noting subtle shifts in the movements and energies of other species nearby.

Earth Native is a sanctioned Bird Language Leaders affiliate, the only training location in the entire southern U.S. certified by Jon Young’s 8 shields organization.

You will learn to identify and differentiate between bird songs, companion calls, territorial calls, juvenile begging behavior, and alarms, and hence gain insight into the current state of play of the environment immediately around you as well as movements of predators and other events that are unfolding on the landscape.

In addition to recognizing all of this “real-time” information, you will learn how to:

• Improve your pattern recognition of sounds and behaviors
• Refine your understanding of local ecology
• Become more attentive to your surroundings
• Deepen your listening capabilities
• Increase awareness of your intuitive faculties
• Walk in the woods with a quiet mind
• Minimize your disturbance of animals as you move across the land
• Deepen your intimate knowledge of, and connection to a place
• Feel more comfortable being a part of nature

In an era marked by increasing disconnection from nature, self, and others, the practice of bird language gives us the tools we need to be more connected to our surrounding and each other. Tuning into the birds, who are present both in the deep woods and the city center, helps us to re-discover the web of relationship between all life that many have forgotten in these modern times.
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Ages: This is an adult class but open to ages 12+. Children under the age of 14 must be accompanied by an adult participant with a 1:1 ratio. An enrollment form and payment must be received for each person attending class, regardless of age.