Re: Risk and Wide Games

Hi, all
Here is another article that I wrote about night hikes and things to do
after dark. It is aimed at an American audience, but most of the
activites are universal.

If you want a WORD or PDF copy of this article please email me at
lmcgraw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (remove the nospam)
Cheers
Lorie McGraw
USA

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Weird and Wonderful : Night Hikes and Activities for Scouts
By Lorie McGraw
Copyright 2003 Lorie McGraw and American Scouting Digest All Rights
Reserved
Please do not repost or publish without permission

Night hikes and camping in the woods or desert can be spooky and a
little frightening at times for scouts and leaders both. Weather,
night noises, and even the wind blowing across a tent can lead to some
anxiety. Add to that the fear of the unknown, possible homesickness,
campfire tales and ghost stories, and a vivid imagination and it is a
wonder that we camp at all!
Here are some ideas for nighttime activities with the youth in your
unit that might chase the heebie-jeebies away, and replace the "What
was that?" with "What a blast!"


General Hints for Night-time Activities

Lose the Lanterns: Stop and sit in the dark with no other lights.
Face away from streetlights, campgrounds, etc. Within 10 minutes your
eyes will adjust, giving you "night-vision". Even on a dark moonless
night your eyes can pick up a tremendous amount of reflected and
ambient light from your surroundings. If the moon is out, or you are
away from the shadows of trees, your eyes will soon adjust. Caution:
do not shine a light, no matter how small, then turn it off and
continue to move in the dark. Your night vision takes between 30
seconds and 2 minutes to return, and in that time you could trip, fall,
or step on or into something. If you close one eye as a person with a
headlamp approaches you can gain your vision back much quicker than if
you are blinded in both eyes by a headlamp beam.

Colored Lenses: If you must use a flashlight, cover the lens with a red
cellophane shield or use a flashlight that has a red bulb. Your
night-vision will not be as affected as it would be with white light.
LED lights that are colored red or green are best for night-vision.

Be Safe: Survey the area thoroughly in the daylight for hazards and
possible danger areas such as cliffs, holes, and barbed wire fences, or
other problems that may arise with scouts wandering around in the dark.
Never reach into holes or under rocks in the dark.

Look out of the Side of your Eyes: You can see items more clearly in
the dark if you look at them from just off center, not straight on. If
you have trouble seeing something in the dark, try looking about 3 feet
to the left or right of it, and you will be amazed at how your vision
improves.

Use your other Senses: Your sense of hearing and smell will become more
acute without your eyes. Night-blooming flowers, animal den smells,
and night sounds will become more pronounced. To improve your hearing,
cup your hands around your ears (make "elephant ears") and open your
mouth.

Leave it like you Found it: Replace all objects that you move or
overturn to their original position. Remember, moisture and shelter is
conserved under rocks, wood and pieces of tin, and this moisture is
vital to the organisms in the vicinity, especially in arid habitats.

Stalking Tips:
· Stay still and let animals come to you. It is amazing what will
just walk up to you if you pretend you are a tree.
· Wear drab clothing and a hat to shade your eyes and protect your
head from branches.
· Avoid wearing heavily scented lotions, colognes, or smelling like
food.
· Walk as noiselessly as you can. You might look funny, but animals
at night rely on sound to alert themselves to danger.
· Be watchful if you have to move after freezing in one place:
something nearby might be startled by your movement.
· Be cautious about what may be on the ground next to you. Ant
mounds can be disturbed at night, or critters may be using your shadow
as a hiding place.


Night Activities

Owl Prowl
Take your unit "Owling" which is where you call an owl into your
locality to try to get a better look at him. Owls are very curious and
will investigate another owl calling in its territory. Practice the
calls of different owls, or when you hear one calling (usually in
February through June) return the call. You do not need special
mechanical calls; simply imitate the calls with your voice. Make it
deeper by making your hands a "box" into which you call.
Some common owl calls:
· Great Horned Owl: deep "hoo hoo-hoo hoo hoo"
· Barred Owl: Deep "hoo-hoo hoo hoo, hoo-hoo hoo hoo-ahhh" (sounds
like "who cooks for you, who cooks for you all")
· Eastern Screech Owl: a tremolo whistle or a loud screech like tires
on pavement
· Long-eared Owl: a low "moooo" or "boooo" hoot at ten second
intervals

Giant Bug Light
Attract moths and other night-fliers by placing a white *** in front
of a lantern. The reflection of the lantern makes the *** glow.
Large moths such as Luna Moths and Sphinx moths are easily attracted
and observed. Have a field guide handy for identification. Be careful
in handling the insects and do not damage the wings or legs. Be aware
that some beetles can inflict a painful bite, so use caution.

Got a Frog in your Throat?
Many of the insect noises that you hear on spring and summer nights are
actually frogs, treefrogs, and toads. With patience, listening skills,
and stealth, scouts can track the frogs and toads to their lair. Toads
will trill, squeak, grunt, and even baa like a sheep. Frogs whistle,
trill, rasp, and groan, and Cricket Frogs sound like someone is
dragging a thumbnail across the tines of a plastic comb. When you hear
an insect or frog sound, have 2 or 3 scouts stand far apart with
outstretched arms and closed eyes, then have them point to the sound.
Walk slowly towards that point and freeze whenever the sound stops.
Then repeat, triangulating in on the location. A flashlight will help
spotlight the noisy individual. For identification of species check
the resources section at the end of this article.

Chorus Call
Other nighttime calls include insects (crickets, cicadas, click
beetles, etc.), night calling birds (owls, whippoorwills, nightingales,
herons), mammals (coyotes, raccoons, ring-tailed cats, elk etc.), and
amphibians (frogs, toads, and some salamanders). By doing a little
research you can prepare the scouts for sounds that they might hear at
night. The knowledge that that bloodcurdling scream that sounds like a
woman being torn from limb from limb is actually a screech owl, and not
an axe-murderer, will relieve some anxiety, though it may not stop you
from jumping when it happens.

Spider Sniffing and Eyeshine
Your scouts will be amazed at your highly developed sense of smell when
you show them how to sniff out spiders in the dark. Make loud sniffing
sounds, then hold a small flashlight next to your head and at eye
level; now look for shining dots. Get closer and spotlight the spider,
declaring that you have "smelled" him out. Of course, eventually they
will get the trick, and you should show them how to use eyeshine to
locate mammals, frogs, and alligators at night. By holding the
flashlight at eyelevel, pointing outwards, you can catch the reflection
of the animals' eyes better than if you hold it at waist level.

Mouth Lightning
Here is a sure-fire entertainment around the darkened campfire: crunch
down quickly on a WintOGreen Lifesaver to produce an example of
"triboluminescence". Sparks fly when the naturally fluorescent
wintergreen candy shatters: the sugar crystals break, making positive
and negative charges. As the charges fly back together, an electric
spark is given off, and the wintergreen adds to the show by glowing in
the lightning. Sometimes the fireworks in your mouth are so bright the
sparks can be seen even with your mouth closed.

Tracking the Night Dwellers
Smooth out a section of sand or dirt in your campsite or near a pond
edge and look for tracks in the morning. Plaster of Paris can preserve
them, and a good field guide will help you identify not only the
species, but also what they were doing. The tracks made by a walking
animal differ from those made by one running. There may be a story to
be told in the two sets of tracks that meet and only one set continues.
Wonderful tracking activities for all age and scout level are linked at
the 42Explore website.
http://eduscapes.com/42explore/animaltracks.htm
Also check your local library and your state's Department of
Game/Fish/Wildlife.

Go Batty
If there is a lake, pond, or open meadow, go bat-watching. Bats are
high-level acrobats that swoop and trill as they snatch up bugs, moths,
and mosquitoes. Some even scoop up small fish from the water, and they
drink on the fly, too. You can watch their escapades better without a
flashlight, but use your night-vision for an aerial display that is
unforgettable. And no, they will not bite you or get in your hair.
However, never pick up an injured bat, as they can carry diseases such
as rabies. Then again, that caution should go for all wild animals,
from field mouse to tiger.

Secret lights: Foxfire and Will o' the Wisp
If you see a spooky glow in the darkness of the woods, you may have be
seeing the 'foxfire' or 'fairy fire' that is the basis for many spooky
stories and legends. Decaying vegetation sometimes gives off a
bioluminescent glow that can be seen on very dark nights. Fireflies and
glowworms exhibit other types of bioluminescence. Some mushrooms and
fungi are also bioluminescent and algae in crashing waves or boat wakes
will glow and phosphoresce at night. Foxfire can be picked up and held
in your hand and will glow for some days if kept cool and moist. To
see foxfire or will-o'-the-wisps keep all lights extinguished and look
in the shade of trees. Allow your eyes to be completely dilated to see
as much of the pale blue or green light as possible.


Glowing Scorpions
Use a blacklight to spot scorpions at night, which will glow brightly
when illuminated. Be cautious around scorpions, as some can give a
painful sting. However, they are fascinating to watch as they come out
and hunt at night. If possible, avoid turning over rocks or disturbing
other habitats. Portable black lights can be purchased at many
hardware stores in the Pest Extermination section. CAUTION!
Ultraviolet light from blacklights is dangerous to your eyes and skin.
Even a short exposure can burn the eyes, causing severe irritation and
possible loss of sight. Never look into a UV light source with
unprotected eyes

Shining Rocks
While you are looking for scorpions you may find that some rocks will
glow under a blacklight. The black light shines in the ultraviolet,
causing the minerals to fluoresce. A good mineral to look for is
calcite, which will show a wide range in color of fluorescence,
including red, green, blue, orange, yellow, white, and more. Mining
areas and slag heaps are good places to look. Never go into a mine
without following the BSA Cave Safety Guidelines (Caving BSA Pub#
19-102). There are plenty of minerals on the surface to explore.


Bug Drop
If you are in an area where the ground is soft and you are allowed to
dig a small hole, try placing a small can or jar in the hole before
nighttime, setting a trap for bugs, small rodents, and salamanders.
The edge of the can should be flush with the side of the hole, or you
can build a small bridge of sticks and bark leading up to the rim and
slightly over it. Empty it into a dishpan to see what wandered by in
the night.
Never set your can-trap if it is raining, as your tiny captives will
drown. Demolish the trap when you leave.

-------------------------
How does your Garden Glow?

Several light-related phenomenon are confused and misidentified.

Fluorescence: energy from an external light is absorbed and immediately
released at a longer wavelength, commonly caught by blacklights or
ultraviolet lights. This is the reason why your white shirt 'glows' in
black light.

Phosphorescence: energy from an external light is absorbed and released
at a longer wavelength sometime later, seen in glow-in-the-dark toys,
phosphorescent paint, etc.

Chemiluminescence: light produced by a chemical reaction, such as
emergency glow sticks.

Bioluminescence: a type of natural chemiluminescence where a chemical
reaction inside a living organism generates light, such as fireflies,
foxfire, will o'the wisp, faerie lights (glowing fungi), deepsea fish,
and plankton whose sparkles show up the wake of a boat, or in crashing
waves.

-------



Resources:
Books:

National Audubon Society Field Guides: On all topics of nature,
including plants, animals, mushrooms, tracks, insects, spiders,
minerals, and fossils. Check your local bookstore.

Owl Moon by Jane Yolen Illustrated by John Schoenherr Philomel 1987
ISBN# 0-399-21457-7 Philomel hardcover
ISBN# 0-590-42044-5 Scholastic paperback

On the web: Do a search for key words or try these:
The Owl Pages Sounds and Pictures
http://owlpages.com/n_american_owls.html
Other nature sounds at
Nature Songs http://www.naturesongs.com/
Frog sounds and pictures at the World of Croaks
http://www.folkways.si.edu/frogmain.htm
Glowing Minerals at Thomas S. Warren Museum of Fluorescence
www.sterlinghill.org/warren/index.htm

Blacklights: See "Night Games" elsewhere in this issue. (posted
elsewhere)


Copyright 2003 Lorie McGraw and American Scouting Digest All Rights
Reserved
Please do not repost or publish without permission
lmcgraw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (remove the nospam)

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