Nature Journaling and Field Sketching

Noticing change: I was observing these birds the last four days. This is the biggest group I have ever seen. They come in the afternoon and perched in a tall bougainvillea with pink flowers. Why came so many birds this year? Are they looking for food or a place to nest? Why do the come in the afternoon (at 4:00pm) and perch on this particular plant? Maybe because it is fresher late in the afternoon?  I did a little research and found out that they eat seeds, grains and insects, but they do not come to my garden looking for insects.

I observed out my kitchen window this morning as it was much too cold to sit outside.  It was a balmy 9F with a strong wind.  I am continually amazed at the resourcefulness and resilience of birds like Chickadees, Titmice, Juncos and Sparrows during these arctic blasts.  They are so small and their down and contour feathers do not seem enough to keep them from freezing on days like today.  Yet they continue to fly, grab seeds, look around tree trunks and wood piles for overwintering insects.  A few young male turkeys arrived this morning and I had questions about why-we have not seen any turkeys since early summer 2019.  

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This is a journal entry from a day at the Ruby Lake Wildlife Refuge in Nevada.  I've had many "firsts" in terms of bird sightings here and today presented another first in the wild.  I observed a large group of Trumpeter Swans; observed several groups in flight and depicted these two from a picture that showed the flight pattern I observed.

We have a drainage area near our house where water runs after rains.  This year we have had much more rain than normal.  White-tailed deer now use the area as a waterhole.  I wonder where they will go when the drainage area dries up?  Will the amount of rainfall we received this past year continue in our area as part of the warmer weather pattern we have had the past decade or more?  If so, how does this drainage area affect other wildlife around it? I did not create a journal page, but I did sit outside in the mornings and painted two deer.

I started this part of the course in early December and the most remarkable thing I had noticed recently in nature near me was the large number of Long-Tailed Ducks that had arrived on Lake Ontario in mid-November. When I noticed this, I also noted that the many, many Double-crested Cormorants that nest and fish on the lake near Burlington were mostly all gone. Why? If Long-Tailed Ducks and other fishing ducks can fish in the winter, why can't cormorants? The first image that popped into my mind was of a cormorant on a rock or tree stump near water with wings outstretched. So my first possible explanation is that cormorants cannot survive when air temperature is below freezing, even though there is open water for fishing, because they don't fully waterproof their wings with preening oil like ducks do. When they stretch out their wings, they are drying them. Then I wondered how the cormorants that lived in Vancouver, British Columbia dried their wings when it rained for 3 or more days in a row in the winter. I suppose wet wings aren't a problem if the birds don't need to fly and as long as the temperature is above freezing. I also thought about what Double-crested Cormorants and Long-Tailed Ducks do when they are not fishing. Long-Tailed Ducks spend all their time on water, even when sleeping, whereas cormorants stand or sit on shores or perch in trees. This might affect the two species wintering location choices. While doing a bit of research on cormorants, I learned that they are not considered waterfowl. Waterfowl, like ducks and geese, are in the Galloanseres clade but cormorants are in a sub-clade of Neoaves called Aequonirthes, or "core waterbirds", along with Penguins, Tubenoses, Pelicans, Storks and Loons. Furthermore, recent phylogenetic research suggests that cormorants belong in a family called Suliformes rather that in Pelecaniformes.

I was observing and drawing on my front porch after a couple days of rain. Birds kept visiting the puddles to drink and a few of them were taking a bath! Pretty cool. I also watched a Black Phoebe catching insects.

On a kind of rainy week I made observations on how a bean pod dried, twisted, and changed over 4 days time; then observed some shells I had had on my desk  and wondered how their varied forms contributed to their function in their environment. Also I continued to work on light and shadow. My writing is messy, and I have difficulty integrating it on the page with the drawings in a useful and illustrative way. Using a pen seems to help a bit.

I thought this was an interesting example of both patterns (rings of Purple Tooth shelf mushrooms), and also energy flow of decomposition.  The mushrooms had obviously been on the wood for a long time.

I decided to do some observations of the pattern on the side of a mountain. All along one face, the erosion of the loose shale rock creates a vertical pattern. I was struggling trying to draw it with pencil and was not happy with how it was turning out. I finally decided to bust out my watercolors for the first time! I was really pleased with the way that I could show the light and shadow of the pattern with watercolor.

I looked for patterns in the river sediments in gravel bars.

One thing I want to practice is slowing down.  Doing spot sits instead of just walking or running or working on a field drawing and then moving on.  The spot sit can definitely help me see deeper and see more interesting details that I would miss otherwise.  For instance, I did a spot sit at a harbor near my house and it wasn't until the very end, 15 minutes into the sit, that I noticed some type of insect or bug dancing around on the surface of the water in front of me.  There were three or four of them and they were making great ripples on the water. They looked as though they were skating. In terms of themes, I want to make sure that I don't draw conclusions.  I can hopefully do this by noting in my journal when I'm making an observation and when I'm inferring something, that way I can check my inferrence later or i can come up with alternative inferrences to my initial one.  Fun to ask follow up questions too.

I made an indoor observation  - and ended up with a term paper on ladybugs because I went on to research the answers to my many questions!  Why and how do they enter my house each fall? What is their purpose in the great outdoors?  As a result, I am now less willing to rid the house of these beetles who have chosen our windows and ceilings as their hibernating spot for the winter.  As long as they don't wake up and land in our soup pot, they can stay put until spring!

From a fall walk. Why are maple trees blazing orange while other trees highlight yellows and browns?

On one of my walks on a bike trail, I found a Milkweed seed pod. From one of the pods were still three seeds that appear like parachutes ready to launch in the next strong wind. From this dried flower, I wanted to find out what fed on this plant and how it fit in the cycle of life. It became how important this plant was to the Monarch butterfly that is on decline. I plan on continuing my research to see about planting this flower. I know it can be poison to animals if eaten in great amounts, but I do not have domestic animals and would like to encourage butterflies. What other plants can I plant that will help wildlife?

I love this time of year when the leaves change and I especially love the Spindle tree.  The branches with their tiny pink flowers and leaves make fantastic table dressing for thanksgiving.  There's one growing in the field where my horse used to be.  He'd trim the tree back regularly.  I always wondered why and I still do as apparently it's toxic!   He passed on much later and not at all because of the Spindle tree. I also learned when researching this plant that the branches are burned to make fusain or charcol sticks for drawing!

I have gone down to the river to do a sit observe a couple of times now. It is pretty enjoyable, but I have a hard time pulling away from the big picture to concentrate on the small stuff. Anyway, I've been a lot more observant of the heron that lives close. I've scared it away so many times, and am hoping by sitting quietly It'll come into view. This exercise is helping me to be aware and learn about the Herons' habits so I'll learn more about my neighbor!

I do not yet have any journal sketches that reflect one of the themes. I do, though, notice the natural world on morning and afternoon walks with my husband, and often when looking out my kitchen window or from our back deck. Our home abuts a tidal salt marsh that is protected as a nature preserve. Our walks usually take us on a path through the preserve or on a quiet road along side a mill pond that drains to Long Island Sound. There is much to observe, especially when we slow down and make the time to inhale our surroundings. Thursday morning I noticed close to one hundred ducks swimming in the Mill Pond, almost all of them moving in the same direction. Gradually, a bunch would turn 180 degrees and ascend in flight. Maybe they were swimming with the tide, or preparing for flight by swimming in one direction to give themselves enough of a runway for taking off in the other direction. And that had me wondering if there is any intentional synchronicity to floating en masse? Knowing that they do not ride the currents as other water fowl do, does wind direction impact how ducks prepare for flight? What is the relationship of this large group of ducks to one another? What is the deal with duck families? At the start of our walk, while still in our neighborhood, we passed a tree whose branches formed an almost perfect bowl. The top half of the tree was barren of leaves; the bottom half had yellow hued leaves. I wondered if the weather impacts the canopy first because it is the most exposed. How does temperature and other weather impact the location and rate of leaf fall? Stopping to pause, observe and wonder is yoga for my senses and mind, and ultimately for my body. I have always stopped to pause and observe; adding wonder to the mixture gets my thinking juices going. And when I begin to bring my journal with me those moments will be all encompassing.

I started to walk and wound up observing five deer in the woods. I had to turn around but it was fun.

I have been fascinated by the nuthatches (at least two) that have been visiting my sunflowers. I have so many questions! 1. They’re here, in the suburbs, separated from forest by miles of orchards and tomato fields. What are they doing in my back yard? Possible explanations:

• they’re young and lost and exploiting any food source they can.
• They normally live in fir forest and there’s a fir nearby. Maybe that attracted them.
• I’ve just read that they will travel if their habitat is damaged. Last year there were massive fires throughout the state, including the nearest fir forest. Maybe they are climate refugees.

2. They are clearly nabbing the sunflower seeds. They have a pointy beak and I thought they were insectivores. But I can see them with seeds in their beaks. They grabbed a seed and zip off, repeatedly. What are they doing with the seeds?

• Maybe they also eat seeds.
• Maybe they’re caching seeds in hopes of generating bugs.
• Maybe they eat and cache seeds.

3. My more usual visitors, the finches, perch on the edges of the sunflowers and reach over for the seeds. If the seeds are too far from the edge, they can’t get to them. The nuthatches can cling to the seed head in every position and grab any seed they want. They are famous for being able to travel upside down even though bird ergonomics favor traveling upward. What’s up with the upside down stuff?

• Clearly they can exploit food the finches can’t.
• One theory is that they can find insects hiding in bark better from that angle.
• Do they also eat fir seeds? Is there something about, say, perching on top of a fir cone and working downward that would make it easy to get the seeds out?

Because it was a wet, grey day, I chose to observe the outdoors from indoors, from all four directions. North: Up the hill, I see a chipmunk, my old  'frenemy', hanging along my - or is it his - stone wall.  I can see his neck jerking, so I know he is sounding the alarm to someone out there.  Since the feeder is down by 2", there will be lots of sunflower seeds spilled onto the grass below.  He'll head over soon. South: Wispy clouds drift across my view of Mt. Sunapee (NH). Despite the weather, it is clear. East: The northern facing tree bark is covered with lichen.  What I hoped was a hole turned out to be a patch of dark green moss. West: Clouds are hurrying North along the treetops of our tall white pines, 11 of them.  the Western sky has lightened up, giving a peachy cast to the 4:00 ending of day # 3 of Standard Time.