Wilder Boys (21 page)
Authors: Brandon Wallace
“Ah, boys, the sky is putting on a show for us tonight,” their dad said.
“What is it?” Taylor asked. “Some kind of lightning storm?”
“That, son, is the aurora borealis.”
“The northern lights,” Jake murmured, suddenly understanding.
“We're fortunate. It doesn't usually come so far south. It must be a good omen.”
Jake just stared at the majestic sight above him and let out a contented sigh, unable to believe what he was seeing or who was sitting next to him. “It must be our lucky day.”
The American goldfinch is a small bird in the finch family, native to North America. Its huge migration range stretches from northern Alberta in the summer months, to southern Mexico in the winter.
Its most noticeable feature is its bright yellow plumage contrasted against its black wing and tail feathers. However, this bright contrast is only apparent in the males in the summer months; in the winter, they revert to a duller olive color. The female American goldfinch displays a slightly subtler yellow hue in summer, and molts to a similar tan-olive color in the winter.
The American goldfinch is the state bird of Iowa, New Jersey, and Washington.
The garter snake has a grayish color with dark spots and a light stripe running down the length of its back. These critters might look fierce but they aren't venomousâunlike rattlers (like the prairie rattlesnake and midget faded rattlesnake), which are much bigger, with brown spots down their backs.
The black bear usually tries to avoid humans and is
meant
to be less aggressive than the bad-tempered grizzlyâbut
that doesn't mean it won't attack if it feels threatened or is desperate for food. Black bears have big claws on their hind legs and forelegs, small rounded ears, and thick black fur, although there are also different colors of bear across the country, from jet black to light brown and even to white.
Huckleberry:
Small and blue with a sharp taste . . . popular with bears!
Raspberry:
Bright red and delicious
Soapberry:
Not so tasty, as the name suggests, though it won't kill ya!
Baneberry:
Bright red, oval shaped, grows close to the ground. Eat too many and you're a goner. . . .
1. Gather tinder: grass, leaves, twigs, paper, or anything plant-based as long as it's very dry.
2. Build a nest out of the material and lay it on the ground.
3. Take your magnifying glass and angle it toward the sun until you make a small focused point of light.
4. Hold the magnifying glass in place until the tinder smokes and a flame develops.
5. Blow lightly on the tinder nest to nurture the flame, and add larger twigs and wood to create a bigger fire.
1. Gather rocks and make two curved fences in the water, facing upstream, from either side of the shoreline.
2. Leave a gap about eighteen inches wide in the middle.
3. Find bait to attract the fish. Throw it in and wait for the fish to bite.
4. Drop the final rock into the gap in the wall, trapping the fish. Then use a net to scoop it out of the water.
5. Have yourself a nice meal!
Skeet says all you need to catch yourself some dinner is three strong twigs, a post, a lever, and a trigger. . . .
1. Carve the post so one end looks like the chisel part of a flathead screwdriver, and carve a smooth facet into the middle to create a flat surface.
2. The lever stick is the diagonal part of the figure four. One end should be carved to look
like a chisel, and farther up, there should be a notch.
3. The trigger stick should be a little longer than the others, with a spiked tip for the bait. There should be two notches on the upper end of the stick.
4. Arrange the sticks in a figure-four formation, with a rock resting on the tip of the lever, and wait.