I am an owl, and my name is Hoot. I’m a barking owl, and I spend my nights just as any normal owl does, flying from tree to tree, fighting with many other owls in the great search for food. I live in Australia, along the coast. My home is located in a large tree, in a dense forest. When I emerge from the trees, I find myself right by the ocean. But I don’t like to leave the trees. It is there that I feel safe.

With my large eyes, I scan the base of the trees, searching for possums, rodents, and occasionally a small bird or two. Suddenly, I spot a small mouse running along from bush to bush. The mouse’s idea is not to be seen, but my vision is stellar compared to most animals, and I can spot things that would prefer to stay hidden. I know I need to work fast to get this mouse. But I also must be stealthy. I use my feathers to camouflage, so I don’t worry that the mouse will see me. I only worry that the mouse will hear me, and will quickly move into a space that I am unable to get myself into.

I keep my eyes on the mouse as I move silently through the trees. I wait until I am right above the mouse, and then I decide to dive. But I miss the mouse, and it scurries away into a small hole. This mouse was the first of my many failures that night. The sun begins to rise over the trees, and I go back to my nest empty bellied and feeling discouraged. It seems to me that I had lost my ability to hunt. I go to sleep, hoping that the rest would fuel me for the next night’s hunt.

I wake as soon as the the last of the suns rays disappear behind the forest floor. I am feeling as if I could take on the world. I hop from my tree and soar out into the night, scanning the trees for anything to eat. The forest floor seems bare, but I spot a bird on a low hanging tree branch that I had caught many times in the past. I know that I can catch this bird with ease. Quickly and silently, I swoop down on the bird, and miss again! The bird is disrupted, and flies away, leaving me to search for food again. By now, I am exhausted from the lack of food. I can’t imagine ever catching a meal. I go back to my nest, and sleep on an empty stomach once again.

The next evening, as the sun once again hides itself behind the trees, I wake, hungrier than ever. This time, I am determined to catch something to eat. I fly around for a few minutes before I spot a small possum working its way along the base of the trees. With what little energy I have left, I fly towards the possum, and scoop him up in my mouth. I have done it! It is a wonderful victory, and a tasty one too. 

Today we went canoeing in Bellbrook. It was a lot of fun. I had been canoeing before, but it had been a long time, and I had never got to experience using an oar. It was hard to get the hang of, and it definitely challenged my partner and I to work together to get the canoe to do what we wanted it to do. We ended up running into a few things, and having to maneuver our way out. We also got to try some different techniques of paddling, and some proved to be more effective than others. We also learned about Recipe Poems, and we practiced making a couple. Here is my favorite one that I made.

Take some fish, some bugs, and pebbles.

Take some birds, and a few trees too.

Take the rushing of water

Take the large bumpy rocks

Take the shadows of trees

And the swooping of hawks

Mix them together

And a river is formed.

Today, we had a workshop about vignettes. A vignette is a concise piece of writing that has many details in a small amount of space. This requires you to write with many descriptive words that make the piece very powerful and meaningful, and it should create a clear image in a reader’s mind. The easiest way to create this vignette is to find the goal of the writing, or what you want your reader to know, how you want them to feel, or what you want them to think when they finish reading your piece. The goal of my vignette is that I want the reader to be able to see that snakes are actually just a part of nature, and not as big of a threat as they may seem.

Vignette:

I watch as the snake curls around himself, trying to make a bed. He has had a long day. The hunt for food was tough, and he needs to rest before returning to his daily routine. His stripes are a sign that he is sleeping soundly, because they move rhythmically, up and down. The snake is alert though. He is a light sleeper. As I move slightly, he lifts its head and looks at me. He is threatened by my presence, and I am threatened by his. This mutual threat seems senseless, but we were each taught to fear one another. The snake slithers into a new position, and its smooth scales slide easily against each other. He keeps his head up, and facing front, making sure he is ready for anything that may be a threat. Although he is a predator, he is also prey.

Today we went to Eastwood Metro Park and we hiked and kayaked. We were split into two groups, and one group went to hike, while the other kayaked. Then we switched. My group started with kayaking. I had never been kayaking before, and it was a very neat experience. It took some time to get used to the motions of paddling, but once I got the hang of it, it was a lot of fun. We also, while in the kayaks, learned some hand gestures that would signal to the other people kayaking that we needed help, were going to turn, or were okay. Then, we went on a hike. We were split into even smaller groups while we were hiking so we could get more individual attention.

We walked on a trail, and we looked at and studied many different types of plants. We had to look closely at the bark of trees, and the stems and leaves of different plants. Sometimes, to identify these plants, we would smell them, and talk about how important this smell might be to the way these plants act in nature. We listened to many bird calls, and specified which bird call went with which bird. We watched the river running, and the atmosphere was truly peaceful. There was a cold breeze blowing and it was refreshing and chilling, all at once.

Wing-stem plant that we discussed on our hike.

Today, we learned about the movie Wild, and we watched clips talking about the woman who wrote the book that the movie was based on. The author read sections from her book, and described her journey. The amazing part of her journey was the fact that her backpack weighed 70 pounds, which is more than half of her body weight. So when we finished learning about her, we planned our own hike. I worked with a partner to make decisions. We decided to hike on the Appalachian Trail in the springtime, for 20 days. We planned to go 15 miles a day, and that would mean we would go a total of 300 miles. Here is a list of the things we brought –

                                    Items                                                         Weight (in pounds)

Container for water Shirts Pants Gun Net Knife Swiss knife Fishing rod Fishing kit Flashlight Batteries Flannel Sleeping bag Blanket Tent Waterproof matches Compass First-aid kit Dried fruit Flint 500 dollars Mad-Libs Toilet paper rolls Energy bar

0.6 8 8 10 1 2 0.1 2 0.1 0.45 0.5 1 2 3.45 2.75 0.5 0.2 1 3.75 0 0 0.3 2.4 4

Our total weight was 54.1 pounds, which we rounded down to 50 when trying the backpack on. We took a walk around the school with a 50 pound backpack on our back. It was difficult, but definitely a neat experience. It made me realize that this journey that she took was very difficult, and she was taking on more than she thought she could handle. In a couple of the films we watched, she stated that her journey revolved around “How to bare more than you can bare”. This is an interesting concept, and it is something that I will continue to think about when doing other tasks.