It was really cold and snowy, too much so to sit outside. Instead I sat by the window and noted what was just outside of it. The sketching came easier than knowing what observations to write down. I kept wanting to edit my thoughts before jotting anything onto paper. This is good practice for me! 

1.  I visited a small local nature park that I have only been to a couple of times recently.  I noticed lots of broken branches and tree limbs from an early winter storm that happened a month ago. 2.  I am used to noting what birds and plants I see.  I also notate birds that I identify by sound.  I do notice the scent of things but don't always think to write it down.  Same with taste.  Since I am an experienced wild forager I am always nibbling the wild edibles that I find, but I have not recorded the tastes until today.  I will make an effort to include these in the future as the tastes are distinctive and I would like to remember them.

I love watching birds, they have beautiful colors, their voice is so relaxing. Observing a northern cardinal was amazing!

Color was easy, shape and spatial was hard to explain

Sitting on the edge of the river ravine, hearing birds, water below, city sounds in distance, fall is coming and colors are less vibrant, less smell of showers and more of aging leaves, flowers, as well as the water now lower and a dull brown versus the verdant green/white of earlier in the summer.  Sight sense easiest for me, then smell and hearing slower, almost as it has dulled over the years.  Slowing down is a challenge however if I add in breathing exercise, mindfulness meditation it has been much easier and much richer an experience.

Spent a half hour on beach at Ediz Hook beach. Mostly Olympic Gulls, but I lucked out when a tiny group of Least Sandpipers flew in. It is as hard as hell for me to see and record what I see because the little buggers move so fast and are too tiny to see well in the first place. So I had to shift between viewing with my eyes and through my binoculars. Add to that the incredible & gorgeous details of the peep's plumage (all bright rust and gold, to my eyes at least).

I have done sit spots not in a park, but in my house near the corner of a window.  Birds sometimes are shy but I have done a couple of sketches.

My journal was all written observations. I was doing a sitting survey of American Pikas, as a Citizen Scientist. They have been moving as glaciers are melting. The Oregon Zoo is supporting a project to monitor the movement of pikas into the Columbia River Gorge, and in some lower elevations around Mt. Hood. I was in the Gorge this morning. I did not spot any pikas, but heard their very characteristic "long" calls. If I had seen them, I would have taken a photo, although I do not have a powerful lens. I am comfortable with recording GPS locations, temperature, other weather conditions, time, date, etc. On my hike in (2 hours) I also recorded other observations - plants I saw, other small mammals I encountered, and birds. It was all in words. Out of my comfort zone would have been to draw or sketch these observations. I would like to do that, but haven't figured out how I could do so quickly. The actual PikaWatch part involved 20 minutes of intense searching with my binoculars. But I was on the spot for about 45 minutes, recording and observing what else was there. It was on a narrow trail, though, and other hikers occasionally came through.

1. I loved my Sit Spot experience.  I was amazed at how much was going on.  I enjoyed watching the chickadees bathe in my fountain and my "awe" moment was seeing 2 Mississippi Kites in my oak tree. 2. Watching the birds came easily to me.  Trying to use my other senses was more difficult.

My sit spot was from my back deck looking out to yard and woods behind.  Liz was so right sitting and being quiet in my space opened senses. Even though it has stormed and continued to rain for days, I wondered if perhaps I should pick another day. The rain probably made the time of observation a little more focused.  At first no birds heard or seen but noises in the environment were more easily picked up… and even noticed the quietness.  So I observed some cone flowers and hydrangeas that are fading from the early summer glory. After about 30 minutes I heard some birds and “ Merlin “ helped me identify red bellied woodpecker and the a blue jay.    And then as I was looking for the woodpecker, some movement mid way up a vey tall pine (30 ft or more) caught my eye.  I grabbed my binoculars and there sitting in a pine branch was a barred owl 🦉 AMAZING!  A mockingbird looked like it was harassing the owl and the owl took flight. It kept low, and swooped into the woods. So cool to see — and I would have missed it if I hadn’t been doing “sit/observe”.

My sit spot was my back yard in particular the garden. I would like to try a different sit spot but today are smoke levels are dangerously high so I am staying close to home. I will try other sit spots at a later date. I do sit in my backyard and practice mindfulness, similar to what you taught us and yes I do notice that things change over the course of a few days even; plants, animals, insects, smells, weather and sounds. I like trying all the observations but I think what I forget about the most or have to remind myself to do is touch and taste and I never thought to do measurement. I have included part of my journaling and some pictures. The bees caught my eye today, I know they are there but taking the time to just sit and observe I saw so many of them in all sizes. I found out bees are hard to draw. I attempted to draw the bee from this picture several times but couldn't seem to get started.

I did my sit spot in my backyard. It was a little noisy since we have construction being done. I was surprised by the amount of bird activity after the first 10 minutes. Insects seemed unaffected. The insects were easy for me to spot but my challenge was getting observations before things left. There was a lot of quick fly-bys. I hadn't noticed the twisting of a vine around a support cable for a power pole in the back of the yard. It was a beautiful pattern and the light was coming through the thin base of the leaves but not filtering through the thicker tips. I go in my yard every day and the sit spot helped me experience things I haven't seen before.

A very rainy day here in the UK today for my very first sit spot, so an observation of the garden from inside. I managed to get a bit of time in between the rain showers where birds visited the feeders. My niece had earlier helped me to fill the feeders so I was so happy a pair of bullfinches came to visit! One of my favourite to visit the garden and not often seen in this little space of mine. I have a small wildflower patch which hums with the sound of bees and has a lot of yellow flowers at the moment. It was hard to hear a lot even with the window open but I shall repeat this outside when the weather allows :)  

My sit spot is my back porch.  From here I can see the activity of the Catbird.  He or she seems to favor the top post of the railing that leads to the upper part of my backyard.  This bird has been coming closer and looking at me as if to say, where is the food?  Until the cause is know for the bird illness in my area, the feeders have been taken down.  I notice a lot of activity at my neighbor’s colorful birdhouse.  I’m pretty sure this is the second of third time a nest has been made inside.  I will keep a close look with my binoculars to see if once again I can see a tiny head peeking out.  The cute Mourning Dove couple is here.  Perhaps looking for the feeder food, too. They stopped by my waterfall fountain for a drink. 

when I read the assignment I knew exactly where I wanted to go. I woke up bright and early to hike into one of my favourite parks. I felt truly at ease as there wasn’t another soul to be seen except for the chirps of birds and critters all about. A truly magical experience. I had my supplies and nature journal slung over my shoulder as I made my way deeper and went to a spot I like to forge wild onions. So as I sat I noticed that there was a small deer trail that went along the dried up river bed (that runs from the mountain and main focus of my city) until I found a beautiful opening that look untouched. So as I sat there and half a hour passed I noticed lots of movement in the upper canopy, and the bushes around me so I started taking notes. I wish I would have left out the water colour as I have very very little to no experience with it. I get it almost ruined my visitor picture, was it a finch? A sparrow? I’ll find out! the whole experience was transforming!

It is pretty hot here, and very humid, in Ontario.  I went out for 15 min and stayed so long my daughter came looking for me.  We have spent a lot of time sculpting the wild space between our yard and the golf course.  There are many snags, berries, and lots of native plants, making the wildlife fun to look for.  While I am out in the yard a lot, “working,” in it, I don’t often just sit there looking around.  I wanted to make the white edges on the hosta leaves.  I think I’ll need to get closer for that.  I really struggled to get the path to wend off in the distance, instead of laying on top of itself, like Candyland. I tried hard to look at what I was drawing, and not at the paper, and tried some of the techniques you recommended.  I have never made it past stick figures, bu I’ll keep trying.  It was fun to really look at the plants and the ‘negative spaces’ in my view. 

I have viewed many fine journal entries before attempting this task of a 15 minute sit and let nature unfold in front of me. Its been raining almost everyday in my area. I love the rain as it provides the necessary ingredient in making living things grow well. When the rains come, mushrooms come out and there was an interesting one growing outside my east faceing  breakfast room. This mushroom was not one that I have seen before in my yard. The shape of the cap was convex with a pale brown overall color with pale yellow rim margins. It was observed in a patch of decaying leaves underneath a waxleaf ligustrum. I was able to view it from another angle while outside. There were pores underneath the cap, not gills,  which meant a Bolete group of mushrooms.  I have not been able to specifically the Genus and species of this particular mushroom. To complicate  things, the Bolete group appears  in  several different families of mushrooms.  While looking around in the surrounding area, I noticed a green anole lizard on a small unknown tree that I let grow in order to shade my patio plants. I sketched white and,  also pink periwinkle flowers that I planted. Among the periwinkles was a deep pink to red tubular shaped wildflower that I left alone in my garden,  as I appreciate its beauty among my planted varieties. I like to walk and observe nature but I have remained close to home due to the inclement weather of late  which often includes abundant lighting strikes. 

  My terrace in the third floor and the birds

1. My sit spot was right in my front yard. I live right across the road from a wildlife refuge, so there is usually some interesting wildlife around. I set up a chair and sat with my journal for around 20 minutes. After only a few minutes a group of sparrows was splashing in a large puddle in the road(every time a car passed they would fly away and then return), two mourning doves landed in a tree a few feet away from me, 5 turkeys was walking around on the other side of the street, and I could hear dozens of bird calls coming from all directions.I quickly sketched the mourning doves and turkeys. I tried to sketch the sparrows, but they kept flapping around and I couldn't get the sketch to look right. 2. Seeing the turkeys and the sparrows was easy, but I would not have noticed the two mourning doves hidden in a sassafras tree if I was not paying close attention. I usually notice the bird calls, but sitting silently allowed me to hear an even wider range of calls.

My sit spot was a amazing! I got to notice things that I would have never have observed. Like the tiny ants scurrying about and the texture and colour of different flowers and leaves. I got time to sit quietly and take in all the nature around me. I collected a real samples of the flower I saw. It was really good idea to do a sit spot at sunrise because that's when there is a variety of birds. In other words, it's a bird paradise time!

3 June 2021, 12:10 - 12:40 pm in Cape Coral, Florida                 Sit Spot: on our dock on Sapphire Canal The sky is overcast to the east; dark gray clouds are drifting northward. It's very sunny here but pleasant because of a light breeze to the north. - wind-blown ripples on canal water; large clusters of oysters on the dock pilings; water visibility only about 10 inches below surface - an orange butterfly is flitting among the maroon bougainvillea blossoms - three gardenia blossoms on the bush at the corner of the pool cage; buds on the bush next to pool cage door - small brown anole (2-1/2") skittering along the stone wall of the dock - one white ibis in neighbor's yard poking the ground for mole crickets/bugs/worms - mockingbird singing in the distance

I found my sit spot experience to be very relaxing and I stayed for 30 minutes rather than 15 because I lost track of time. I am looking forward to going back to this area for more nature journaling as the birds were very active and there were many different plants and fungi that would be fun to draw. I was near a well-used trail, so the birds were very accustomed to human presence and appeared soon after I sat down. Definitely visual and auditory observations came most easily to me, and while I did enjoy the scent of the forest, I forgot to write down anything about it. I attempted to estimate distance and size, but I am not sure how accurate I was.