What to Know:
“When anything moves through the wild, the forest announces it. And once you learn the language, you will realize how much was always there, just out of sight.”
Tom Tonkin, BHPFA Education Specialist
The forest around you is never silent. It is speaking. Every chirp, alarm call, and sudden hush carries information that birds, deer, and predators already know how to read. In this guided hike through Wind Cave National Park, Education Specialist Tom Tonkin will teach you to do the same. We meet at the Wind Cave Visitor Center at 9:00 a.m.
You will learn the difference between animals at baseline and animals in alarm, and how to use what you hear to detect hidden wildlife, track predator movement, and read the living pulse of the landscape around you.
The deer already knows something is out there. So do the squirrels. So do the birds. This hike teaches you to know it, too.
This is a skill, not a lecture. You will practice it in real time, on the trail, in one of the best birding habitats in the Black Hills.
Come ready to hike about 1.5 miles on uneven terrain, and leave with an understanding you will use for the rest of your life.
Details: Spots are limited. 15 dollars per person, or 40 dollars for a family of up to four.
