It was such a quiet afternoon. Rustling leaves were the primary sound in every direction, but other than that, it was all so still. I enjoyed drawing a leaf close-up. This particular day I think my mind was also a little preoccupied, but focusing the the details of the leaf helped me be more present.

Observations of birds come most easily for me.  Sketching is very new and I have lots to learn, but i gave it a shot.  : )

This sketch was done in my front yard where I have a four station feeding station for birds. These include: niger thistle, oiled black sunflower seeds, a small bird cage feeder, and suet. I observed that the very agressive pinyon jays rake sunflower seeds out of the feeder where ground-feeder birds can get. The jays fly and hide seeds around the property. Then I noticed that the chickadees and other small manmals would dig up the hiden seeds. It is interesting to see how these are interrelated. I feel honored that I live in a place where nature can come and visit. As winter approaches, it is interesting to see how animals prepare along with us. I look forward to seeing how others observe nature.

This was fun to do in my friends back yard, chilly!

I love the discovery process this cultivates and am reminded of Darwin's Red Notebooks--his drawings, questions, connections, comparisons, hypotheses and so on. My drawing fails to capture the web of tiny branches casting a halo--utterly luminous, reflecting the intense sun on a Colorado day--around the much thicker more muscular main branches of the massive cottonwood I stood under, looking straight up. I'm relatively new to Colorado and find myself asking all kinds of questions (not yet written in notebook) about these (weak?) fast growing trees with such an awesome presence.

This was really enjoyable.  I spent half an hour observing, making notes, and doing quick sketches.  Later, I referred to a Sibley bird guide to help fill in correct details to the drawings. The text was refined a bit and the boxes were added.

We had a warm morning today out ahead of an arctic front that arrived about 4 pm. I went down to the Clark Fork River and sat about 10 meters from the bank just under the mean high water mark. A few birds were active, like chickadees and magpies. Mergansers raced up and down stream. I spend a lot of time in this area fishing, taking pics, and swimming in summer. Interesting to focus in on the plants in the floodplain that are now dead or dormant. The state of the water and the trees is obvious to me as they change throughout the year. But looking more closely at the low plants along the river was a little tough. Good to try and get important details for later identification.

I noticed a lot of variation in similar static objects, like entire color ranges of leaves from the same tree.  I was in a fairly busy city park, so did not see much wildlife.  I heard numerous birds, but was a bit frustrated I couldn't identify them.  I was motivated to ID the trees surrounding me with iNaturalist so that I could properly label them in my journal. I really enjoyed experimenting with different media, although I know that is later in the course!

This is my journal page from my second visit to McDowell Grove Forrest Preserve, in Illinois. I went earlier in the week but didn't have my sketchbooks with me, so I used that day to mostly write my observations. I wanted to go back again since it was so enjoyable. The downy woodpecker was literally right in front of me, but only for 3-5 seconds. I wanted to try and draw him from memory so that was a little challenging. The two visits were quite different mostly in how I recorded my observations. Both days were really nice fall days and I ended up sitting out there for a few hours yesterday even though it was in the 40s, I painting the middle scene well into dusk, and watching the sky change color as I painted was really special.

a nice november day.  the tree was farther from my spot, the grasses were close to my spot.  I think the distance is not accurate in the drawing but I like observing outside.  I have a long experience in this spot and it seemed new and fresh today.

 I don’t remember my leaves identification from when I was a kid but I hope to relearn it now.

I’ve kept a written journal for decades, and clearly that comes more naturally to me than drawing. Also, the birds were the most striking things for me, and they were not hanging around for sketches! I was also very interested in the sounds of the birds. Usually I’m more of a plant person, but the back yard is mostly weeds I’m trying to get rid of, senescent veggie garden—and the sunflower stalks that bring in the birds, piquing my curiosity about them.

I'm enjoying doing this and finding what I like that adds information as well as looking pleasing to me.

Second page of my Sit Spot. I quite enjoyed this activity, spending 30 minutes on our back deck taking in the nature preserve that abuts our backyard. The first page of my Sit Spot is all text, noting what I heard, saw and felt on my face (it was chilly and the temperature felt as though it was dropping as the clouds meandered by and the sun traversed the sky.) With page two I focused on what was on our deck, and found myself entranced by a pot of flowers that still had some blooms, despite several evenings of temperatures in the 30s. I felt most content drawing rather than writing, which makes me smile. :-)

The "outside the box" observations for me are when I am observing a forested landscape in front of me.  I often wonder where to start and am getting a little overwhelmed.  For now, I enjoy observing a single leaf or bird, taking a picture and drawing in my free time.  The weather is getting cold here and I will probably have fewer opportunities to draw outside.

It's November, cloudy, breezy, 48. It's not a day for outside sitting. So for many of these assignments, it's indoors, looking out.

I ventured out into the backyard.  It has been cold and frosty here so couldn't get to a park.  I had a great experience, though!  I am fairly good at sitting/meditating, so it wasn't hard to be still.  Even with the barrage of human noise, I still heard birds and saw hawks and had a visit from our friendly squirrel friend.  I am looking forward to really venturing out to a more "nature-y" setting soon!

My spot was my backyard in Sonoma County. I enjoyed taking the time to observe and appreciate it's natural beauty after a week on the edge of evacuating due to the Kincaid fire. I found a dried seed pod I had not noticed before and discovered it was from a small dogwood tree. I don't normally close my eyes to observe, but as soon as I did I could really smell the aroma of the bay tree.  

It is a rainy day here, so I ran outside and grabbed a few leaves. I placed them under a light for shadow. I really went for the autumn color.

I found time to go to a spot around 5:30 PM. But it was  getting dark quickly. I listened I smelled I tasted. I was there a short 20 minutes,  so many species to record, a few sounds, and only tasted one thing. But I felt the rough texture of the Aspen bark,  and the smooth velvety surface of the polypore which I need to identify it is not one of the few I know.  

I mostly notice noises and animals (birds) at my sit spot. My position was alao a bit awkward so I could not successfully sketch as I would have liked. As  far as outside of the box, I did not feel anything particularly interesting in the vegetation perhaps because it was so dense? Only one morning glory that was opened compared to a few others that were closed.