I spy, with my little eye, something moving. Humans, like many critters, can spot movement better than they can spot a stationary object.

I thought I would take you back to 1969. I was working for a contract company, and they had been hired to do some recognizance work on several properties their clients owned in the Keewatin. It was my first time on the barrens, and I was dropped off at a lake at 10 a.m. to do my first solo traverse of a property. I had to hike a couple of kilometres inland and check out a ridge that had a couple airborne anomalies on it, then return to my pickup spot by 4 p.m.

As I was hiking inland toward the hill, I felt like I was walking through a textbook on field geology and post glacial topography. I was enjoying the hike and the day. If you are new to the tundra, it takes a while to get oriented to the new perspectives. It felt like I was walking across the roof of the world. ThatSA国际影视传媒檚 the best way I can describe it.

Then I saw some motion on the side of the ridge I was heading for. I froze and watched because it had to be something big. When you are on a traverse by yourself and the biggest thing around is a waist high willow, you feel a little vulnerable especially if you see some unknown much bigger critter ahead of you.

I made a tube out of my hand and scanned the area. Yup another patch of motion then three, four, five, six motions detected. But I couldnSA国际影视传媒檛 see what they were. A herd of bears perhaps? But that didnSA国际影视传媒檛 sound plausible. They werenSA国际影视传媒檛 dark enough to be muskox and they didnSA国际影视传媒檛 seem to be moving like a pack of wolves would. Then, one moved and was silhouetted by the sky. It was something with horns, so I decided they must be caribou.

I had never heard anything about caribou attacking or harming people, so I thought 'OK, I am probably safe' and continued my hike. I moved slowly but steadily, and they just sort of wandered around feeding until I passed them maybe 20 metres away. Since it was the first time I had ever seen caribou, it was quite interesting.

Now, the little trick of focusing your vision through a tube goes back thousands of years and it works. Kids do it with toilet paper tubes or tubes from paper towels and have fun doing it. But then they stop doing it and completely forget about it. Often if teenagers or adults see you doing it, they will think you are weird, a nerd or a little silly, but it works. So who cares what people think?

DonSA国际影视传媒檛 bow to peer pressure and give it a try. Even the brim of a baseball cap cuts out the sky, so you also see things better. That is why people will hold there hand out like a visor to see things in the distance better. The old hand tube trick works even better.

The next time you are out for a walk, and you see a bird flutter into a tree, try looking at it with your hand tube and see how much better you see the bird, especially if you are trying to identify it. It also works well for finding things. If you drop something on the ground like a key and have trouble finding it, use the hand tube method to systematically look at the ground and there it is. You may ask how you missed it before. The answer is you were looking at too much area at once.

Binoculars, handheld telescopes or spy glasses of course work better, but they can be cumbersome and get in the way. So the hand tube is a little trick you might want to try. Or hey, be a kid again and look through a cardboard tube from a toilet paper roll.

Bird watchers, prospectors, biologists, naturalists and outdoor enthusiasts all train themselves to see things better. It takes time but you will be amazed at how much more you see.