Use all of your senses while taking a nature walk | ECOVIEWS

Some friends and I once walked into a McDonald’s to get a Big Mac after a field trip.

We got a totally unexpected response from the teenager behind the counter when we placed our order. Instead of, “Would you like fries with that?” he said, “Have you been catching garter snakes?”

We all laughed. We had indeed caught several garter snakes earlier that morning and knew how he knew we had. We sported the cloying smell of the musk a garter snake releases when captured.

Our server/cashier revealed that he also was a snake hobbyist and recognized the distinctive scent. The experience is instructive about how to enjoy a nature walk in more than one way.

Vision is the sense most people rely on in their appreciation of nature — birds at a feeder, flowers in the woods, a squirrel climbing a tree. Shape, color and behavior are primary cues used to recognize life in the world around us.

Next to sight, hearing is the sense we use most in animal identification. Birds and insects are obvious examples. The only times we get to experience some of them on a regular basis is by hearing them. Cicadas, katydids, whippoorwills and chuck-will’s-widows are more likely to be heard than seen. Learn to enjoy the auditory experience and knowing that the species is around.

Many animals make sounds that are different from the stereotypical image we have of them. For example, when we consider the call of blue jays we think of the raucous, bullying sound that characterizes them. But blue jays make many other sounds, including one made occasionally that is almost melodious; it is certainly not as bone-rattling as what we usually hear. Or pick up a bessie bug beetle, one of the black, bullet-shaped creatures found in rotting logs. Hold it to your ear and listen to it hiss. Learn to listen for sounds of nature that are outside the ordinary.

We are accustomed to the fragrance of flowers, but to experience the scent of some plants, no flower need be present. On your next walk through the woods, in the park or around your yard, take a leaf from various trees and shrubs. Close your eyes, rub the leaf between your thumb and fingers, and sniff. Some trees are readily identifiable by their scent.

The smell of a leaf from sassafras, sweet myrtle, pecan and hickory trees is distinctive. Some leaves will have no scent, but a walk around the neighborhood tearing leaves off plants and smelling them can lead to interesting experiences. Obviously, you do not want one of those experiences to be an encounter with an irate neighbor who thinks you are vandalizing her yard, so be circumspect. Also, learn what poison ivy and poison oak look like. Those plants won’t mind your tearing off a leaf, but you will.

The sense of touch can offer unusual nature experiences. Most people know what it feels like to stroke a cat’s fur, scratch a dog’s head or rub a bird’s feather between their fingers. I recently let some friends compare the touch of the smooth scales on a kingsnake’s body to the rough, keeled scales of a water snake. Not everyone will have an opportunity to touch snake scales in a controlled environment. But anyone can explore the texture of different leaves.

If you are absolutely certain a plant is not poisonous, you might even use our fifth sense and taste it.

Observe the natural world with all your senses — sight, sound, smell, touch and taste. Listen for the rustle of dried tree leaves or the murmur of running water. Crush tree leaves to see if any have a distinctive scent or texture. Touch various grasses; compare the sensation of rubbing your fingers down different tree trunks. Enjoy nature when you are in the woods, alongside a stream or just in your backyard by using all your senses.

Maybe you’ll even find a garter snake and get to enjoy its singular perfume.

Whit Gibbons is professor of zoology and senior biologist at the University of Georgia’s Savannah River Ecology Laboratory. If you have an environmental question or comment, email ecoviews@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Use all of your senses while taking a nature walk | ECOVIEWS