Develop your observation skills
On Saturday afternoon I headed out to try tracking down some winter birds. Fisrt I popped over to check Victoria Woods and the Gosling Wildlife Gardens at University of Guelph Arboretum, then picked up coffee and doughnuts on my way out of town. But by the time I reached my second stop in hope of finding Bohemian waxwings, I knew something was wrong. My mind was so cluttered, I wasn't thinking about what I was looking at or watching for. I wasn't even noticing bird songs.
Keen observation requires a clear mind. A few years ago my eldest daughter, Marian, who was then only five, startled me with her ability to notice things. One warm September day she, her younger sister and I were hiking through a meadow when she suddenly pointed and said, "Look, a toad!" My eyes followed her gesture away across the hillside and I was tempted to dismiss her unlikely discovery. But I already knew she had a sharp eye, so I stopped for clearer directions.
In fact what she had found was a grey tree frog no more than 3 cm long, clinging to a stalk of goldenrod at the edge of the trail. Marian had an advantage because of her height, but the creature was well camouflaged in a sea of wildflowers, and hidden in shade under the clustered blooms. I remembered my parents trying futilely to point out a red cardinal in the branch outside our dining room window when I was a child. Marian's ability at five to spot something so small, let alone identify it as an amphibian without close investigation, bewildered me.
A friend later gave me a term for this: field independence. Some children have a marked capacity to notice an object that is different from its surroundings, even in a complex environment. It is a mark of high intelligence. That same autumn I discovered that when taking my daughters to a nearby waterfowl park, I could also rely on Marian to spot the semi-wild herd of deer that lives within the fenced boundaries of the reserve.
I believe the phenomenon also reflects a child's openness and lack of distraction. As adults we tend to complicate our lives. Too often, I use nature walks as a time for thinking rather than observing. But that's like going for a romantic dinner and not listening to what your partner is saying, failing to notice his new shirt or something different she has done with her hair.
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