I loved this experience! Noticed sounds first then tuned into looking at my surroundings. I hope to make this a regular part of my daily life. I think it would be helpful as I go through stressful times and enjoyable for its own sake as well.

I loved this activity and would like to make it a regular part of my daily life. The easiest for me to focus in on were the sounds. They seemed to be my entry point into the experience. From there I went on to looking at my surroundings. 

It was a beach with large outcroppings of sandstone; early morning, very sunny and warm. A place I’ve been before and normally would have moved on quickly. Not today....sketching the scene made me oblivious to how long I actually stayed! I was aware of wave action, the style and activity of the people on the beach....it even helped with my problems with proportion.

My comment and uploaded photo are not showing up here today.

I live surrounded by Pisgah National Forest in the NC mountains. Our community is filled with large pines, hardwoods, rhododendron and laurel, so it's almost like living in a forest. I just sat on my deck. Last night something made a loud bump on the deck and during my observations I realized it was the raccoon that had been robbing our bird feeder. We've been bringing it in at night to keep it, as well as bears, away. I don't think I would have noticed the raccoon footprints if I had not sat out there for a while.

[[I was more focused on observing and taking notes than drawing, so my drawing for today isn’t very detailed.]] I had just filled the birdfeeder outside my bedroom window, and watched the birds and squirrels that came to it.  I drew the Chinese Privet tree and the feeder, but also used my cellphone camera to get some images. I saw White-Crowned Sparrows, Mourning Doves, a California Scrub Jay, House Finches, House Sparrows and an Oak Titmouse.  There was also a young Eastern Fox Squirrel who couldn’t quite figure out how to get the seeds in the feeder, and an adult Western Gray Squirrel who was adept at stealing the seeds.  That squirrel also went over to the hummingbird feeder and tipped it just enough to get the nectar inside to dribble out, and he drank from the feeder!  Ingenious! I could hear the squirrels running across the roof, to and from the feeders. When the squirrels were around, the birds stayed back from the feeders but didn’t fly away. I could hear the sparrows “chirp” at each other, and heard the male Mourning Dove cooing to the female as he followed closely after her along the ground. She didn’t seem interested in him and kept avoiding his attentions by scurrying away. I could hear the wind whistling through the doves’ tail feathers when they flew in and flew out. The White-Crowned Sparrows were more interested in the suet blocks than the seeds in the feeder, and the doves ate the seeds that fell onto the ground. Some of the White-Crowns ate seeds off the ground, too; they kept looking up and around them every few seconds as they fed. Keeping an eye out for other birds and predators?  Some of the White-Crowns also flit up onto the window sill to peck up the seeds there.  They’d look up into the window as they fed. Didn’t observe long enough to see “intervals” of movement; but I’m looking forward to doing more observations outside at more remote locations.

Yeah i visit the spot two times the first one was of one hour and a half, and the second visit only 30 minutes. I could saw a couple of bats flying all around me, and stranges noises of cicadas and lizards.

For the time in the year I am pleased that a kitchen window is a kek to the rest of the world.

I visited the beach to observe the gulls and terns. I thought I would try a more common visitor to our shore. Spending the time to look at the gull for details is a wonderful method to learn about about this and all species. My drawings are still one dimensional and I am not ready for the including shadows, try that next time.

It's February in Maine so a bit too cold to sit outside but it was a beautiful sunny, windy day all the same.  I drove a few miles to the beach and sat and watched the waves crashing on the rocks.  While sitting there I spotted something on one of the rocks and broke out my binoculars.  there were 4 tiny little birds on one rock and they stayed there for the longest time just moving about on the small rock.  even with my binoculars I couldn't tell what birds they were or what exactly they were doing.  I did watch them move in chorus to the other side of their small rock when a wave approached that would shed water on their rock.  eventually they took off and unfortunutely I didn't witness their leaving.  Curious though there were thousands upon thousands of rocks in that area and they remained on that one only and I never saw any other birds anywhere in the vicinity.  as you can see I'm no great artist but I enjoyed myself and found it peaceful

I'm including a sketch completed on October 19, 2019. I was sitting at a place in back of our camp in the Tug Hill area, upstate New York.  I was at my sit spot in the woods next to camp soaking up the quiet, listening to the rustle of leaves caused by a red squirrel as he was preparing for the winter, I could hear the bird calls echoing around me, yellow, red, and rusty orange leaves were softly drifting in a light breeze to the forest floor all around me.  It was beautiful.  

I went to a favorite place this fall to watch the river and to see if any wildlife would appear.  The weather was warm but a big storm was coming.  It was very peaceful to just sit and observe the landscape for a long time.  The fall colors were very muted due to an early freeze.

1. The experience was peaceful. I usually hike through without spending much time resting in place. Finding a sit spot and being still provided a unique perspective on a trail that I have hiked hundreds of times. 2. Observing the sights and sounds came easily to me; the flowing creek and the prominent greenery were unique for the typical dry, Southern California climate. After I sat for a moment, I began to feel the cool, almost dewy air and noticed the fresh, sweet scent around me. 

Spending time out in our backyard doing this exercise drives home the truth in the above statement, on The Benefits of Awe. It was indeed uplifting and I found that words flowed on the page --so nice to describe what you see and are attempting to depict, I love to learn more about what I observe, this makes it so easy to remember. One additional  thing I learned in this exercise: do not use chalk pencils, unless you wet them.

It was raining and cold the past few days so I had to sit  and watch from my window. I do this a lot anyway. Usually squirrels forage, but not today. Everyone hunkered down in the rain. Easy observations are the light. Light is always the first thing I notice. Then, I move to how it filters through the trees and scrapes across the ground. Sounds come next. As I settle into a sit spot, I hear more sounds. I notice the rustling of leaves, the squeaks of chipmunks, and the chirping of birds. It gets harder when I try to discern birds and their sounds. I'm still learning.  

I am finally able to spend the time required to work on this part of your instruction. The teaching and especially the videos are very informative and I am enjoying it tremendously. I am currently spending a week at our condo in Breckenridge, CO and it is very cold and snowy, so I chose my sit spot indoors, sitting on the arm of the sofa just inside the sliding door to the deck. My drawing is what I viewed. I noticed the uniqueness of the ice cycles which had become very smooth and thick at the top as many individual cycles were joined just under the overhang. The light coming through them at 3:00 p.m. was subtle and I was unable to capture the sparkle of the edges which caught the light. The lodge pole pines behind were tall and bare with the high branches behind the ice cycles tufted with fresh snow. It is really breathtakingly beautiful. It is very still since the wind is not blowing, and the sun has recently come out highlighting the fresh snow. Concentrating on the cycles, I think I would have noticed if there had been any birds passing, but it seemed quiet to me from my position.  I tried to use some of the drawing techniques which you presented at the beginning of these lessons, but I realize this is a very difficult subject to draw. I wished that I had used masque and watercolor instead.

I chose just to sit at the window in my den, which looks out onto my back yard. It is only -5°C here today - which is very warm; last week it was in the -20 to 25°C range most days. It is also completely overcast, and there is virtually no wind. I had low hopes for what I would be able to observe.  I had seen a red squirrel earlier in the day, as well as the rabbit that lives under our deck; but, no wildlife at all for the 1/2 h or so that I sat at the window. This dearth of activity forced me to really look. I observed two interesting things: 1) the dead crab apples that are still hanging on my tree are relatively evenly distributed; although, perhaps less densely on the north side of the tree. Possibly because the wind in this area blows predominantly from the NW most times of the year?? Contrarily, the few remaining bunches of seeds still hanging on my Manitoba Maple are only located on the north side of the tree. I couldn't think of an explanation for this one, except that I think the seeds have predominantly been stripped off the tree by said local red squirrel. Perhaps she left more on the north side because it is windier and makes foraging on those branches more precarious?? No clue. Interesting to try to reason through it though!

We have south facing windows which overlook a bird feeder and a place where we feed deer. At noon a deer approached the apples so I stayed inside and used this as my "sit spot". Later another deer came out and joined it. I was able to note their different appearance and behaviour. In the afternoon I moved outside (snow covered ground, 0 degrees and overcast)where I could observe both the feeder and the apples. Outside you could use your senses so much more fully. The chickadees where particularly chatty. I thought that writing up observations would take all the time, but somehow time slowed and I was able to sketch some trees and a bits of a bird. The trees I wanted to identify because I had wondered what the deer were eating besides the apples. Several blue jays came to the feeder and as I started to sketch their outstanding features as I noticed that not all were the same. Observing the shape of the birds' tails and the markings was the "outside of the box" for me. For example, it was hard to identify the colours of one bird because the overcast weather made colours indistinct. Instead I noted its size, bars on the wings and distance it kept from me. Observations certainly do lead to more questions!

Here is my youngest son's sit spot...not very much there but he's still learning to enjoy adding to his notebook as he much rather just play in nature. Then my older son's sit spot journal entry, I love the these he's noticing! Finally, mine. I am looking forward to using this technique more when the weather starts warming and we can see more animals then right now in the winter.

I am in Florida for a couple of months.  The back of our condo is quite small and there are few  birds that come  by though they are regular. There are a couple dozen different species around the neighborhood retention ponds and I get to see them every day. I do have a sit spot at home in Indiana where I have a couple of dozen bird feeders year round and thus lots of birds every day.  The tree in the first picture is directly out back here - on the other side of the retaining wall.  When the local Gnat-catchers and Palm Warblers come by, this is where they forage for insects.  They don't stay long though and they certainly don't stay still.  But I enjoy listening to them and to all the others that I can hear but not see.

I'm new to this course, having just begun on January 6, 2020. I'm enjoying the course work and also the work of others. I can tell how involved everyone is in what they're doing by the great results. I see something worth noting in all of these posts! Thank you!

Sketching from a sit spot was so much fun! Prior to this course, I often wished I could sketch and draw my field observations, but lacked the confidence to try. Though I need a lot of practice, sketching really enhanced the experience for me; it was my “ outside of the box”.  Counting and tallying species comes easily, but interpreting behaviors is more difficult for me.