News
Tracker’s News
Sunday 5 September 2010
Hello fellow trackers,
Welcome to the latest issue of Tracker’s News.
The Mini Chase:
Not long now until the Mini Chase, hope to see you there!
New!
I have now installed a toolbar which will make it easier for you to stay in touch with what is going on.
- What are the advantages of this toolbar?
- Quick and easy access to my sites and blog.
- Weather button, so you can check what it is going to be like before attending a course.
- A place where you can chat with other members of the toolbar and ask me questions directly. This feature is only available to those with this toolbar.
- Exclusive offers only available to people with this toolbar, every now and then I will put up a button which will take you to an exclusive page where you can get a course at a special rate, which will not be offered on the main site or to anyone else.
I look forward to talking you on Track Chat!
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Tracking Tip:
This time I thought I would provide you with a link to follow up on. There is a lot out there on the internet, which is a great resource to go tracking on: http://www.bear-tracker.com/humans.html
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Blog Translator:
Installed too now is a translator widget onto my blog and the same will be done for the tracking site, as there is quite a bit of interest from overseas in the blog and our courses. Recently we just had a student arrive from South Africa… It was great to see you on the course Shane, thanks for coming.
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Q&A’s:
Firstly thank you LG for asking this question, to which I replied directly via e-mail. However, I thought it worthwhile putting it in the newsletter as I am sure other people might well have asked or be asking that same question.
Q: “Hi, I would like some advice if you don’t mind, basically I am learning how to track and most of what I have taught my self is from a book by Bob Carr’s other than attending one of your courses, what other advice would you give and are there aide memoirs available? Many thanks” LG.
A: As far as I am aware there are no other aide memoirs out there, that does not mean they do not exist, it just means that I have not found them yet. If you know of any please do let me know so that I can send this information to LG. My reply to LG was first to recommend several books (see below) and really the best advice I can give you, is to get out there and do some dirt time, which is difficult these days as we all lead such busy lives.
However, try this exercise, which you can do when you are out with family and friends. Please do be aware that when you do it, you will be entering into someone’s personal space and for those of you who have been on my course you will understand. Suffice to say you need to ask permission to track some in this way, which I will explain in a moment. How do you ask? Well, what I do is: form the question in my head and then I put it out there, asking for it to be for the greatest good and to harm none.
Now to the exercise: Find yourself a nice spot where there is a natural track trap, e.g. along a public footpath in the woods, near to the beach etc. then just sit and watch how people enter and exit your track trap, once they have passed through go and look at the trail they have left and try to marry up their tracks to what you observed. I did this with my buddy Rob some time back and we soon filled up our day.
It is important also know that some members of the public will ask you, what you are doing; please take the time to explain to them you are doing and why, you will find that they will be quite happy for you to do it, and they will be fascinated by what you have to say. Some will even ask you what you in see their tracks. It is important to be honest, so if you do not know the answers tell them that and that you are just learning.
Your Questions:
If you have any questions you would like me to answer then please do drop me a line and I will do my best to respond, should I not know the answer I will let you know, but only after having exhausted every avenue first to find the answer for you.
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Header-bar Quiz:
From time to time I put images up on my site to try and get you to test your observation skills. The first header I ever did, had a pterodactyl which quite a few of you found. One person contacted me about it and as a result they got a discount off their next course with me.
On this header bar no one contacted me and maybe no one spotted the mistake. I had a picture in it named Black Bear; this in fact was not true – it was one of my tracks. I will not be telling people when I put these up and they may not take the form of pictures either, why? Well it’s all about getting you to track in different ways, it is not a test it is just for fun & to practise your observation skills without having to go into the woods, which of course is a much better option.
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OK, that’s all for this issue. Look forward to the next
Tracker’s News where I’ll introduce more tracking tips
and exercises for you to use.
So track well and don’t forget: You’re never wrong
when you track on your own.
Now go track something,
Geoffrey
Tracking Tip:
This time I thought I would provide you with a link to follow up on. There is a lot out there on the internet, which is a great resource to go tracking on:http://www.bear-tracker.com/humans.html