Bird Language Intensive

We met for a solid week to do nothing but learn bird language!

The week was so fully packed with bird connection, people connection, good music, good food and good learning that I cannot do it justice in a blog post. Here, then, is an average day in the life of the Bird Language Intensive, and if you want to know what it's like to live this pattern, come to one of the intensives.

A word on camp organization: Dan Gardoqui headed up the "acorn" (facilitation team), along with some of our NE regulars and special guests from the WAS and OTS community. The whole camp was organized into four clans, each of which had an acorn member as a facilitator. We sat near our other clan members in our sit area, drew our maps of the bird activity with our clans, worked in the kitchen and cleaned house with our clans. The camp was also broken up into eight cardinal and sub-cardinal directional societies, and the clans included members of each society. The Grey Fox clan, for example, had members of the East, Southeast, South, and etc. societies. We often organized wandering and tracking activities along society lines.

We got up before dawn and carpooled out to our sit area, a south-facing slope near Gazos Creek. We sat quiet and still through the dawn chorus and into full daylight, making notes on the bird activity in each of four 10-minute periods defined by raven calls from our clan leaders. After sitting, we gathered by the cars to map our findings for the morning.



We played energized, immitative games that electrified our bodies and helped us feel what the little birds felt as they foraged and fled from predators. I know the shot below looks like a massive toddler's game of Airplane with adults. In fact,it was a fast-paced, challenging and competitive game that had us all moving intuitively like little brown birds hopping from cover to feed before the hawks swooped in.



At some point in the day we debriefed the sit. An experienced bird language mentor (or two) would sit at the front of the group with all the maps and ask questions of the group. They looked at the maps, noted patterns or inconsistencies, and drew a story of the morning out of the crowd of information.





Back at the lodge after lunch, we took a break in mid afternoon for siesta time. Spontaneous guitarchestras tended to form.


The guitarchestras followed us into the kitchen when it was our clan's turn to help with meal prep. Never has a so-called chore been so celebratory.


After lunch and before dinner we usually went out on the land again. We tracked and wandered to find more information about the stories we brought back in our bird maps.



After the evening meal we gathered in the main room for lecture, stories, or music making.

The week unfolded, progressed, and wrapped up smoothly. Transitions and group logistics, though often consisting of plan B's and unplanned adjustment to outside forces, knit the day together seamlessly. With skillful facilitation and plentiful information, I found the Bird Language Intensive to be the week I'd been waiting for all year.