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Getting to know a bird

Visit your sit spot and identify a bird that feeds on the ground nearby, such as a blackbird. Over a number of visits, at different times of day, get to know this individual or species well, including how to identify it, its habits and its behaviour.

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At a glance
Step by step
Questions to wonder about
Tip
Variations
Resources
Learning
Practising over time
Safety notes

A printable PDF, with any templates or charts it needs.

Coming soon. Jay is giving the activity guides a final proofread before they go on sale as downloads. Ask to be told when they’re ready.

Safety first. Outdoor activities carry real risks. Each activity guide has safety notes, but you are responsible for yourself and anyone in your care. Supervise children, get permission, never eat anything you cannot identify with certainty, and only light fires where it is allowed and safe.

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Sit spot How to identify a bird using GISS

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Safety, and where the activity guides come from

Look after yourself and others. Outdoor activities carry real risks: fire, tools, water, weather, heights, plants, fungi, animals and getting lost. Every activity guide includes safety notes, but you are responsible for your own safety and for anyone in your care. Supervise children closely, get the landowner's permission, follow the Countryside Code, never eat anything you cannot identify with complete certainty, and only light fires where it is allowed and safe. If in doubt, leave it out.

With gratitude to the lineage. The Wilding Practice Keys and many of the activities in the activity guides have been adapted from the core routines of nature connection in the 8 Shields approach (Coyote Mentoring), mapped by Jon Young and shared in Coyote's Guide to Connecting with Nature (Young, Haas & McGown).

These ways of noticing and belonging are far older than any book. They grow from the knowledge of Indigenous and land-based peoples around the world, who have lived in close relationship with the land for thousands of years and have kept that knowledge alive, often in the face of great loss. Jon Young describes 8 Shields as built on patterns of nature connection he found in Indigenous cultures around the world, and on what his mentors taught him, including the teachings passed down through Tom Brown Jr. from Grandfather Stalking Wolf. Our own ancestors in these islands once knew the land in this way too.

I offer Wilding with deep respect and thanks to all of them. It does not claim or copy any culture's ceremonies or sacred practices. It is a UK way of carrying forward simple, shared human ways of paying attention, giving thanks and belonging to a place. — Jay

Getting to know a bird

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Inside this activity guide

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