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Tracking course run by Ian Maxwell and hosted by Survival School.
Beginners Tracking course run by Survival School at their Devon location.
Ian Maxwell and the charming Rhoda Watkins were guest instructors from shadowhawk. We learned loads of things about animal awareness, and tracking.
Many of Jonny's previous course members attended and it was a great weekend.
We were taught to use sticks, and measure the distance between different types of animal footprints.
Here some of the lads looks for "sign".
Ian was extremely Charismatic and his anecdotes and stories were amazing.
We learned to look for "track traps" places in the landscape, where all animals must pass, and where the ground is extremely receptive to animal tracks. Ian found a hollow near a field.
Soft mud made it possible to identify all animals entering or leaving the field.
Its quite hard to see in this picture, but there is a picture of a fox paw print.
A cross can between the pads off a fox's paw. The same cross, cant be drawn between the pads of a dog, which makes this a good way to tell them apart.
Again, a bit hard to see (although I have drawn a big red circle around it) is a bird print that we found.
Ian had purchased a Tom Brown "tracker" knife, as used in the awful film, The hunted.
I took the opportunity to photograph it, as it was one of the most unusual knives I had ever seen.
