Hello there!  I was inspired to begin nature journaling about four years ago.  Having just moved from Toronto, to Ottawa Ontario, I was exploring some new hobbies including photography, cross country skiing, and nature journalling!  I took an EdEx course called Illustrating Natural History, which was wonderful, however I'm even more excited about this course as it will include birds!  Like many of my fellow students here online, I've had a lifelong passion for birds, learning about them, watching them, and enjoy bird painting/arts in my spare time.  What excites me most about the journalling is that it really helps one develop an eye for details, and appreciate the natural world so much more deeply!  I also look forward to this process helping me document, and identify plants and birds on my nature walks. I want to ensure my journal has a real blend of science and art.  I want to include lots of descriptive writings, and I also want to have sketches that I can reflect on later that are accurate, and aesthetically pleasing.  I'd like to observe and record any behaviours, patterns, things I notice.  I was really impressed with the journal of the spider/bee and the memory the writer had of that moment in time. I started a new mixed journal at the beginning of the Pandemic, and in it I included some backyard birds.  I would sketch, and fill with colour pencil or watercolour, and then add some descriptions that I'd learned through some simple web searches.  It helped me learn basics of each bird.  I kept 1 bird per page, and my goal had been to draw all birds I saw.  Sadly, my journal was not meant for watercolour and so the pages wrinkled :(.   Happy journalling! Alisha

I’ve always admired other people’s journaling with drawing and watercolor but thought it was completely out of my reach. We’ll see. I see so many beautiful things outside around my house, at camp, at outdoor events, on walks...At the same time I feel more and more like a consumer in the age of “scanning”...walking with headphones on, scrolling through online media while sitting outside.  I want to become more focused again. I’m hesitant to pick a journaling style because I feel like I will be copying someone else a la Pinterest, so I will sees as I work along.

Even though I work as an ecologist, I end up spending most of my time on the computer and I feel disconnected from the naturalist I was in my younger years. I hope that nature journalling will help me reconnect with my study areas and taxa and also the surprising and beautiful natural world of the megacity I live in, during these hard times. The journals in the short video were incredible, I have no artistic experience whatsoever, so it seems incomprehensible to me that I would be able to produce anything similar, but I'm excited to learn. Some of the journalers' reflections really resonated with me, I like the way they used their journalling to observe and understand animal behavior, I thought the habit forming approach was very cool (daily/monthly journal) and I really enjoyed the idea of having a record of your experiences to share. I also think nature journalling seems like a really great way for older people to fight depression and reduce the risk of dementia, particularly during this pandemic, so I hope if I can get the hang of this, and when I'm able to travel overseas to safely visit my mum again, I can share this with her. The picture I've attached is to give you all a laugh and show just how baseline my baseline is: zero art experience, zero journalling experience, here are the last pictures I drew of plants and animals I'm currently working on for the whiteboard where my wife and I keep track of the papers we're writing. Let's see what happens!

I have recently become interested in birdwatching in this pandemic. We live in the country and have lots of room to roam and view all of the more inland birds of Monterey County. Sometimes I see a bird and want to capture it's features quickly so I don't forget what I have seen while on a walk. Sometimes I sit and watch for a length of time and thought about sketching. I have also thought about dabbling with water color. I already keep a birding journal and started some rough sketching. I found this course and it inspired me to look into this more and hope it becomes a habit which helps to ground me in nature and life. I like the journaling aspects along with visual representations, more random and practice for me as a novice. Some of the journals are overwhelming to view as a beginner. I was an art major in college but switched to psychology and education. I want to return to the artistic side and create in many different ways.

I am taking this course because I have recently been geeking out about fossils. I assigned my students to draw the six main types of fossils and some of my students' work was amazing.  I tried drawing some fossils that I found but my drawings were mediocre at best. The next thing I knew, this course showed up in my email. Bizarre right? Wish me luck.

I’ve been an amateur naturalist since I was a kid, loving to learn about the names and habits of all the plants and animals around me. When I was in college, I spent most weekends backpacking in the mountains and every week day I could steal hiking in the redwood forest. My kids remember one camping trip to Canada stopping at every volcano or new tree species along the way. About 5 years ago, I picked up colored pencil with the goal of being a portraitist of birds. It took me months to complete each drawing. I’ve never studied art, but I decided I wanted to learn to draw. In January, I got an iPad Pro with an Apple pencil, and it made me a lot bolder in my drawing experiments. I started a journal with sketches. When my mother was trapped aboard the Grand Princess cruise ship with the coronavirus (she’s fine), I switched to drawing quarantine comics. During the pandemic, I’ve been walking the boundaries of our property in the Santa Cruz Mountains, observing all of the changes at a new level of detail. I’ve watched juncos, spot-sided towhees, California towhees, Wilson’s warblers, Stellers jays, quail, crows, and a stealthy pair of sharp-shinned hawks raise their broods. The SCU Lightning complex fire boundary is a half mile from us. During our month of evacuation, all of the birds except the rufous hummingbirds and the chickadees left. Even the juncos, who have always been here in abundance, were gone. Over the past 6 weeks, the birds slowly came back. I’m 59 now. The Western forests that have been my deep love and my delight are under threat, along with every being who lives in them. I want to celebrate and record all of this life. The different journal styles gave me ideas and freed me from the idea that my nature journal needs to be any particular way. I can try different ideas and discover what works for me and what doesn’t. All of the examples of partial or unfinished drawings are a great reminder that my journal will be its own journey. The drawing is a zebra finch from my aviary.

 I've always loved to draw and write. In grade school I was in pretty high demand for my realistic pencil drawings of the Beatles, done with the help of my Magnijector, which allowed me to project their photos on my wall. After getting a degree in English lit (and birdwatching when I should have been in class), I went back to a trade school for graphic design so I could actually get a job. I was amazed at how awful my drawing was when I started, it was like I was back in 5th grade. But I was also amazed at how quickly I improved with practice and observation and good teachers. I've always had an opportunity to do art of one kind or another -- Shakespeare costume design, poster design, quilting, but my drawing is back to 5th grade again. I am fortunate enough to live in a town (Arden, Delaware) surrounded by woods, and I love my daily walks, taking photos with my iPhone, often just details, like the patterns in a mushroom (see the photo) or frogs disappearing into their background. I would most like to express the beauty of our Arden Woods. Many, many thanks to the journal makers in that great sampler video. They were all inspiring. I loved Shayna Muller's boxes and it was inspiring seeing Margaret Corbit's drawing evolve as she captured the hummingbirds' hover. I could almost feel the wind beneath their outstretched wings. The journal that spoke most to me was Holly Faulkner's. I love her organization by day or month and her obvious love of typography, along with her exquisite drawings, of course. But the graphic design — the combination of image and text — I found that approach inspiring. But enough writing, and on to drawing. Today I opened my sketchbook and headed for my favorite autumn mums, but stopped before I got there and sat down and drew a single leaf from the hardy begonia on my porch. I am looking forward to learning how to use watercolor, because that would be so much better for capturing the color and texture. Also, I should sharpen my pencils.

I think the finished journals are really cool, and they represent a very special time spent with one's self. I have always loved birds and my mother always had feeders and we would feed the birds in the winter months. I am an ESL teacher and try to teach my students about our state of Pennsylvania and, about 2 years ago, I realized they were not familiar with any of our birds. I designed a unit on Backyard birds and assigned each student a bird that we commonly see here. We spent days drawing them and writing short information about them. I was amazed at how much the students helped each other with their birds - the wings go more like this, or a second grader suddenly realizing the relationship of the beak and the eye and how they were located on the head. Drawing the birds was also very comforting and relaxing and the students spoke to one another and developed real friendships even though they were aged from Kindergarten through fifth grade. Students started coming into class telling me what birds they had seen after school or on the weekend and sharing what they looked like. We would look them up on this website and talk about them. I was so inspired by my students, that when I saw a class a few months ago I waited too long and the class was closed. When this one popped up, I jumped on it. I am really excited to start  drawing and journaling!

I have always enjoyed drawing but have gotten away from it. I do need to learn to work with color. I love nature and taking walks. I think this course will give me structure and an incentive to get back to drawing. I liked how people use the journaling to observe and remember what they saw.

The very first video gave me a sense of surprise and relief because it showed an easy way to give structure to a page. It showed boxes with sketches inside. I though, ‘Oh I can do that!’ Immediately my bit of anxiety at starting this new venture lowered. I also saw with surprise that the sketches were also breaking out of the boxes to provide some energy and movement on the page. As a very beginner who has limited experience with visual arts this gave me both a sense of the familiar and controllable (boxes) and the inspiration to break out of them. Another student entry before mine also mentioned how her environmental value to fill the page was important. This is true for me as well. I can see that the sketches can be small and leave room to write about what I was experiencing in the moment and about what I was noticing about my subject.The same student entry also mentioned how sketching plants might be easier at first and I that is a very good idea to start with. I also like her idea of sketching her garden and particular trees through the seasons. This is something I can also easily do. Another video mentioned using the basic geometric forms (as in the doves) and this is something else I’d like to focus on as I think it will be a good way to more efficiently capture the basic contours of my subject.

1. What inspired me to begin nature journaling?  I'm getting close to (if not already am) retirement age, and I've always been attracted to art and gardening.  I took a course at a local art institute - painting the flower as art.  The class was excellent, but as a beginner, taking a "non-beginner" class I floundered a lot.  So about 5 years later,  today, as a matter of fact, I happened to be out in my garden and took a look at a tree I have - a flying dragon.  I decided I wanted to draw or paint the tree - because I love the leaves in fall, and I love the bark which appears like a snake.  I sat down at my computer after breakfast and this course was listed as on-sale in my inbox...... and now I realize, I would really like to journal my garden through the seasons. 2.  I like all of the journals - being an environmentalist I prefer the pages that are packed full of drawings and notations -- this seems to be the best use of paper and space -- I also like when people preserve their errors, there is a lot of interest in the errors, and certainly the errors show progress in a "first time accuracy" kind of way - as opposed to just the final perfect picture.  I VERY much liked the "close ups" that one journalist used.  I also really enjoy colour -- and I loved the pencil sketches that emphasized the shapes and gestures - like the doves with the pronounced foreheads.  So certainly lots and lots of ideas from the journals that I viewed. 3.  The though of journaling is about 3 hours old to me at the moment -- so no, I have not thought it through much - with the exception that I would like to revisit the same plant(s) - throughout the various season rather than a one snapshot look at a plant.  I would like to also journal animals, but am currently not sure if my memory or speed will allow me to capture my subject -- perhaps a cell phone picture to assist me in the beginning...... but then on second thought, I feel like I would loose part of the experience by relying on technology.... so like others, I'll take my imperfections.

I ended up really enjoying Holly Faulkner‘s journals and her painting techniques 

I'm newly retired, a long-time birder and have always been visually oriented, having spent nearly half of my career as an art director putting pictures and words together. Now that I have the time, I want to get back to putting my own words to pictures, combining poetry (haiku) of my nature observations with illustrations. During the pandemic, I've found my own backyard to be full of inspiration, whether it's the many birds at my feeder and nest boxes, our small but active frog pond or the butterflies and bees attracted to the pollinator gardens I planted in spring. My goal is to sharpen my observation and illustrating skills to quickly capture the essence of what is see around me.

1.  I'm an engineer, so most of my time is dominated by the left half of the brain thinking.  There is much creativity that comes with engineering, but it is mostly analytical.  I also enjoy nature photography.  I enjoy learning the behaviors of the subjects I want to photograph so I can get better photos.  I think this uses some more of the right side of the brain, but I still think of these situations analytically.  I started reading "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain", but it didn't hold my interest.  Seeing how you draw nature in your journal looks fascinating to me.  I am interested in slowing down, experiencing the stillness of the mind, allow myself to quiet down and observe, and take the time to draw.  But, I don't know how to draw!!  I hope you can show me the way :-) 2.  I like the idea of no strict format, draw something in whatever space is there, add the date, time, weather, etc. and making notes to describe observations, thoughts, and feelings.  I like how the use of boxes with the drawings flowing out of them adds dimension to the sketch.  I also made a mental note about drawing as a means to remember the topics I am studying.  Many years ago I had signed up for the Home Study Course in Bird Biology, which I thought would help me be a better bird photographer, knowing more about bird behaviors and habitats and such.  I hadn't finished that one and have migrated over to the new course, Ornithology:  Comprehensive Bird Biology, and I'm thinking that drawing out what I am learning would be so helpful in remembering what I want to learn.  "Learning how to Learn" style. 3.  Capturing moments through photography is wonderful and fun, but doesn't require so much slowing down and writing down observations, thoughts, and feelings.  I'm sure I won't be leaving my photography gear at home, so I'll most likely capture a few photos, then attempt to sit down and take the time to draw and write.  Just thinking about doing this brings a feeling of relaxation throughout my body!  WoW!

Learning to draw different types of birds and getting colours and behaviours to help in identification and also build memories. Become more mindful of my surroundings

• I’d like to improve on my field comments with color. Also more structure to my pages

Hi all My inspirations? My very part time business is collage card making. Improving observation and drawing, painting skills will be a plus.

• My small city yard is a native garden habitat in which I see and am learning all I can to support pollinators and the environment I am a casual but enthusiastic birder. I don’t like to write in journals but I would be coaxed to draw, paint and jot if I paid money for a course !

I am a natural resource land manager yet never have time to observe, record and investigate nature in the detail that I would like to. I also have mental images of nature that I would like to capture in an artistic manner. And I would like to be able to draw better and capture the essence of the subject relatively quickly.

I have spent my entire life in the outdoors, hiking, camping, climbing, sailing, kayaking, bird watching, and many other outdoor activities. I began keeping a journal in college as part of a course I was taking on Environmental Outdoor Education. I’d read naturalist writer’s books and looked at examples of field journals. I just began sketching, never having taken a course on drawing or nature journaling. The ideas that appealed to me from the other journalers included keeping track of the date, time, location, and weather of where they were journaling. I liked the idea of zooming in on a part of a sketch to really get the close-up details. I also liked seeing the simple sketches, getting the general shapes of the birds, and sketching the same subject a number of times. I can see how this would help to build the skills and confidence to create more detailed sketches. 

Hello! How inspiring it was to see various styles of nature journals. 1. What inspired me to start journalling (double "ll" is the British/Canadian spelling): I just started journalling while taking another Bird Academy course for teachers that focuses on citizen science. Taking courses during the pandemic is a perfect opportunity to a) get outdoors, b) enjoy solitude, c) explore new interests and d) develop new skills. I don't have an artistic background, but I have a long history of careful nature observation. Journalling  will help me chronicle and reflect on my observations and "encounters" and help to deepen my understanding of what it is that I am observing. 2. Which journalling approaches I would like to try: I like filling a page with words and sketches. I want to let go of the need to "finish" a painting/sketch. I appreciated the quick sketching of the hummingbirds, for example. I also want to embrace the idea that things need to be completed before moving on. The journal-creators' comments on the memories associated with the journals resonated with me. Likewise, the purpose of a given entry can be different than the entries before and after it. Sometimes I may focus on posture, other times plumage. Sometimes shape and other times movement. Considering the journal as a work in progress and an evolving style is helpful to reduce anxieties associated with perfectionism/incompetence. I really liked the idea of multiple entries on one page. This allows a feeling of a completed segment of either greater detail and/or reduced time. 3. What different journalling ideas do I have not mentioned in the video: 1) I've always been interested in taxonomy but never studied it. When species of flora/fauna or classifications of rocks/minerals are identified, I like to write down the common name(s) along with the latin name. The latin name is fascinating and often gives history, description and other information in its translation. This practice is something I will most likely continue to do. 2) I like jotting down a comment of something that is happening parallel in my life (son's new job, global affairs, special event) to give the moment context within my own life and how, even with other things going on, I found time to sit, reflect, observe and ground myself in nature.

I've always wanted to draw and spend tons of time observing the plants and birds on my patio and figured this would be an ideal class to learn more! I still don't know exactly which style will work best because they're all beautiful! I think I'll try a less structured approach rather than use boxes at first. Thanks all for sharing your stories.

I am inspired to begin nature journaling because I like to record things about my life and I like to spend a lot of time in outdoor spaces. I am a photographer and writer. As a child, I drew a lot. Drawing and writing were my earliest passions. Weeks after my mother died when I was in high school, I had a negative interaction with an art teacher, and I quit drawing after I was finished with her class. The desire to draw never left me, though. Although it has been more than 20 years since I gave up on it, I want to re-learn how to draw and enjoy the experience again. I look forward to this course helping me get back on track with that. I think my approach will be more about combining notes about what I observed and felt alongside my drawings. I do plan to give my drawings priority and fill in with words around them. I want to capture my experience of nature more than the technical details.

I started nature journalling because I bought a book called Keeping A Nature Journal by Clare Walker Leslie and Charles Roth; I bought some colored pencils and started sketching; I was on an island and had a lot of time and I found it so calming and meditative and it gave me pleasure so I started doing it every day I was there. In particular, I liked Liz's journal because it had a lot of landscape in it and I spend a lot of time looking at landscape and the light on it; she also was concerned with texture and she used the word "beautiful" to describe a sunrise and sometimes I want to record the beauty I see. I don't have any journalling ideas from the ones shown; I find that it is now, as Autumn. approaches, a little too cold somedays to capture the sunrises over Lake Michigan as they happen. So I suspect I will use some photos and work from them later in the day.

My world narrowed somewhat during the pandemic. My walks in the park and my backyard observations of wildlife and plants helped me navigate these months. Each observation and sometimes a drawing or painting of my interest were like little vacations from the news swirling around me. I took the Identifying Bird Songs course and practiced on my walks. It was so rewarding to actually be able to identify a call or a song. I decided that as the fall approached I wanted to have some focus on learning. I found this course and The Biology of Birds course to help me through the winter months. I have a love for botanical painting which is a slow process. I want to be able to draw and paint birds from nature and sketches. I have done some paintings from photographs, but I really am looking forward to drawing and painting from nature. Now I just have to figure out how to keep the raccoons out of my bird feeder. The visitors to the feeder in the winter are a constant entertainment during the winter. I think it will provide me with many subjects to draw when the weather keeps me in.