Observation Skills
Introduction
In today's world of teeming, crowded, and engineered environments, homo sapiens seems to have adapted an extremely narrow sphere of awareness as a coping mechanism. As such, detailed observation is both a physical and psychological skill that has seen significant erosion in the human animal. This is sad, as observation is the single most important skill associated with good fieldcraft....period.
The ability to detect either prey or predators is fundamental to just about every animal that walks the earth, and with good observation skills, not only will you be able to penetrate the camouflage of possible quarry, a world will open to you the richness of which many have long since forgotten. With a bit of practice and a lot of patience, you can be well along your way to awakening this most powerful and beautiful skill. Here is where we show you how.
Perception
As defined by the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary:
perception (n)
1 a: a result of perceiving: observation b: a mental image: concept
2: consciousness
3 a: awareness of the elements of environment through physical sensation b: physical sensation interpreted in the light of experience
4 a: quick, acute, and intuitive cognition : appreciation 2 : a capacity for comprehension
and:
perceive (vt)
1 a: to attain awareness or understanding of b: to regard as being such {perceived threats} {was perceived as a loser}
2 a: to become aware through the senses; esp: see, observe
Your Senses and your Mind
By far our dominant sense is our eyes. As such, that is where the bulk of observation skills development is going to take place. For example: in the banner immediately above, there is a person standing upright in plain view to the camera. Although wearing a ghillie suit and adhering to many of the principles discussed on fieldcraft.ca's camouflage page, he is none the less very visible if you look hard enough. This is the key...you have to be prepared to look. This can take what sometimes feels like Herculean effort.
Concentration is an important trait to apply to any observational effort and unfortunately modern homo sapiens are not very well acclimatized for this task. Television is an interesting phenomenon and it is telling with respect to our natural tendencies relating to our natural ability to concentrate. Programming typically consists of a cacophony of rapidly shifting imagery and audio designed to capture and hold the attention of the viewer for as long as possible. What makes this interesting is that a long, uninterrupted scene on the television quickly becomes uninterestingly boring and a viewer will shortly lose interest and focus their attention elsewhere. This tendency seems to transcend the world of the tv and permeates just about every aspect of contemporary life. Our ability to use our senses to concentrate on one thing for an extended period of time is a skill that would appear to be acquired as opposed to something that is innate.
Good observation skill begins with the discipline to look carefully at a given piece of terrain over a longer period of time than we are regularly accustomed to. The key here is discipline; while we have instinctually been programmed with the visual hardware which will draw us to motion (a phenomenon that the television exploits extremely effectively) it takes significant mental effort to concentrate on something that is not immediately stimulating. Becoming good at observation often takes a lot of practice and it is a skill that will need to be maintained. So what would this type of practice entail?
Developing the Capacity for Acute Observation
A good place to start is with a set of high quality binoculars. They need to be of as high quality as you can afford, for you will be spending a lot of time behind them. Lower quality binoculars will induce fatigue and eye strain much quicker than those of higher quality. Once you have acquired a good set, you should start by finding a spot with a bit of a view and parking yourself there with the intent of staying for a bit.
A quick, five minute scan of the area is the first order of business and where you will see things that would be of immediate interest. Most people are content with this and would move on, but that is not what would be considered effective observation. A detailed study of your surrounding is what should ensue. When we say "detailed observation", we are talking about a study where you will slowly examine every bush, every tree, and every little piece of ground in between. This examination should take you between 30 to 60 minutes. You'll likely have to more than once fight off the conclusion that "there is nothing there" and this will probably require significant effort as we've become accustomed to the gratification of continuous stimuli.
You'll need to be stationary throughout the entire exercise and focus your attention on a probing, penetrating visual search. Many people find that once they have fought off the internal urge to get up and get moving, they relax a little bit and both the exercise and time begin to flow. One big benefit to this type of exercise is that you yourself are not moving throughout and the area under observation will slowly return to its natural state. This is where the big payoff begins for most people in that they begin to see those bedded deer 500 yards out or that ultra stealthy coyote as he still-hunts across a distant hillside. You'll start to develop a baseline understanding about the relationship between time and the environment you have under observation, and the longer you put into the visual scan the more this understanding will evolve and expand.
Movement
So now that you've spent the past hour conducting a detailed observation exercise and have cultured a baseline understanding of your immediate environment, it's time to start to slip through it. Movement is important enough that we'll be dedicating a seperate article on it, but there are some relevent points to bring up in the context of observation.
The astonishing thing is that when you begin to move, even though you have spent alot of effort into observing your environment, covering even a little bit of ground compromises 85% of the observational study you have just done because your position relative to your environment and your frame of reference for interpreting it have both changed. What now becomes so very important is to move slowly, spending at least as much time stopped and re-interpreting your environment from your new position (even if it is only several feet from your last one) as you did moving there. The optimum ratio of movement to observation will be even smaller�the less time you spend moving/the more time you spend looking, the higher your level of awareness will evolve.
Why? Your eyes become seriously handicapped at detecting movement within your environment as from your perspective everything seems to shift when you are on the move. Remeber that movement is the single biggest visual detection cue and when everything is shifting position from your perspective while you move it virtually negates the visual contrast created when other things in your environment move. Only when standing still are you able to make the most effect of this physiological phenomenon in the way homo sapien's eyes work.
By applying something like a 2:1 ratio in looking:moving and setting up your cadence similar to a *step-step-look.......step-step-look*, you can build up an extremely evolved sense of situational awareness that will include yourself, your environment, and how your environment might be reacting to your presence.