Hi my name is Terry and I took the course as a way to do something creative during the lockdown this summer and reconnect with my previous study of Goethean Science.

Hi everyone my name is Becky. I have enjoyed reading the reasons others have enrolled in this course. I have kept written journals in the past, but I have never sketched or used water color to record the natural world around me. I’m hoping to acquire these skills.

I’ve always loved nature and have been taught by great uncles, grandmas and moms to see things that are hidden by slowing down observations. I love the idea of a scientific journaling habit that would also help me meditate. I’d like to try a journal with a couple of main pictures of the subject and smaller detailed “pop outs”. I think this would be most valuable to me if I write observations, behavior notes and a note about researched facts.

Currently, I paint wildlife from the photographs I take.  I would love to be able to quickly paint a sketch of what I see.  My block has been picking and choosing from all my tools in my studio...I cant take my studio with me, but can easily take a camera.  That has been my excuse.  My diary has kept the dates, location, weather, etc. for the photos I take.  The journal would do the same.

I have been looking at this course for the last year.  I even bought all the materials and then did not enroll for a forgotten reason.  I just finished the beginning birding online class offered by this organization and after looking at birds in my neighborhood, came home and drew them.  My skill with watercolor is non-existent, so I decided to take this course to add splashes of color to my drawing and start taking my journal with me on my walks.  Social distancing has offered up opportunity for this kind of activity.  Walking alone gives me time to study things around me that I see every day but don't really look at.  I enjoyed all the journals and was thrilled to see that even with the different styles and abilities the results were so pleasant to me and so meaningful to the person creating the journal.  I look forward to starting.

I have always enjoyed being outdoors and learning about nature, but usually I was very active, hiking or biking. Now that I have small children we cover a lot less ground, and that gives us a chance to appreciate the details. I am interested in nature journaling for something to do while my kids are immersed in outdoor play and also to do with them as they develop the interest. There are so many wonderful nature apps (eBird!), but sometimes I find myself on my phone more than I like,  looking things up or taking pictures. Hopefully nature journaling will help me to stay present in the moment and also help model appreciation for nature for my children.

I have always enjoyed drawing... it helps me to focus on details and to look closer at things. I am married to a knowledgable biologist/ ornithologist and we are both passionate about the outdoors and wildlife. I love recording our findings in my nature journal. I have been keeping a nature journal for a while now, but haven't focused on it lately and wanted to spark a little life into my artistic pursuits again.   I'm also hoping to improve my drawing skills, in order to draw more realistically.

I have been a lazy journaler and now have time and space to invest in paying attention to the beauty around me. I am fascinated by the little brown birds in the backyard feeders. I want to get close, to somehow capture who they are. Nature journaling as a creative discipline seems like the perfect solution!

I'm really going out on a limb here (pun intended) trying this nature journaling. My main goal is to enjoy the process and be satisfied with what I can do, not what I think I "should" be able to do. I really love the beauty of nature in all its forms and hope to be able to capture some of that beauty on the page.

I have a large back garden that I am trying to cultivate and grow.  In the past I was not particularly interested in gardening, although I grew up in a family with keen gardeners.  The past two years I have taken to gardening and it has become a labor of love.  I have watched the garden grow and change.  I am observing all the flowers, vegetables, berries, insects, birds and animals in the garden.  I want to record what I observe in a creative way and in a more conscious and active way.  Presently, I take a lot of pictures with my phone.  I like the time, location and weather stamping method.  I also like the boxes around my drawings.  I am hoping to be organized in my journaling, I am not particularly organized so that should be interesting.

1. Hi my name is Adella. I love nature and watching behaviors of birds, enjoy plants, watching insects/butterfly.  I live in Florida and love the subtle change in seasons.  I love looking in bird field guides.  Love the photos and admire the detailed drawings.  I like helping with citizen science projects.  I never thought of nature journaling, but a friend of mine gave me the idea.  I do not have a talent for drawing, but would like to give it a try. 2. My favorite is Holly Faulkner.  I like the way she presented her pages representing each month.  I liked D.J. McNeill's sketches. I liked Liz journal.  It reminded me of the way a children's book is layed out. I would like to try a combination of my favorites. 3. Not at this time.

1.  I have always wanted to nature journal but never believed I could draw anything that would ever be recognizable to me let alone anyone else.  I, therefore, took up photography and have used it to create shutterfly books of memories of all my international trips.  But with Covid 19 and more time as well as no options to take my next international trip I thought this is a great time to try and develop this skill to add to the word journals I do when I travel. 2.   I want to mix my words with my drawings and then add in the background I can look up when I get back inside if I don't happen to know that background already. 3. Not yet but I think the more I journal the more personal the style will become.

I am Andrienne. I have been doing nature journaling or at least nature drawing for many years. I have an associate of arts degree in studio art from Mount Wachusett Community College in Gardner, MA,  and I have also studied art at many other places. I am not  a professional artist really but I regard art as my avocation. I call myself a civic artist, by which I mean I participate in local events in Fitchburg, MA where I live, which invite artists to draw scenes of Fitchburg. And the works are later displayed in a public place. What inspired me to do nature drawing is that I love gardening and I enjoy bird watching and watching squirrels and whatever other wild animals come into my back yard— yes, even skunks. I have taken nature drawing classes at Tower Hill Botanic Gardens in Boylston, MA. So when I saw this class offered by Cornell School of Ornithology, I just naturally signed up for it. Of the different artists who showed their journals in this first lesson, I really liked the journals of Shayna Muller and Holly Faulkner the best. I like the way they interwove their comments with their drawings and especially the way Shayna drew rectangles around her drawings in a way that seemed to create unity, but I derived some inspiration from the other artists as well.

I'd begun nature journaling before this pandemic, but rather haphazardly, with no real plan or schedule.  Several friends were doing it, and encouraged me.  I watched a number of John Muir Laws videos and really liked his approach.  Now that I have more time I decided to take this Bird Academy course to encourage myself to sketch every day.  I've been walking in the woods near my house every day for the past weeks, recording the birds I see and especially noting the new ones arriving as they rest during their migration.  So since I'm outside already, I'd like to use some of the time to sketch in my journal.  I also have a small journal where I've been sketching all the different warblers, noting their markings in hopes to learn them better, but I'm doing all this from books.  Now I want to be able to draw directly from what I see outside.  Gesture drawings are something I really want to practice and get better at.  I like the combination of drawings with written observations and questions.

Like many of the folks who responded I have joined this class during Covid-19; a nature journal seems like a good way to really be in the world and present to it, while still social distancing. The idea of sharing my observations feels challenging and yet absolutely critical as a way to reach out to others; a way to share the world. Since I retired about 4 years ago I revived my interest in describing the natural world and asking questions about my observations. At that time I began to learn to draw and work with watercolors as well. It seems natural to join learning words to describe what I see (from natural history and gardening) and drawing. I suspect putting both words and art to a page will help me "see" much more. All of the journals in the video gave me ideas for my own journal as did the beautiful examples of other respondents. Having tried to journal before I will be loose about the when of my observations-so the idea of a month of contributions and a record of how things change in the month will work well I think. I like the idea of boxing images and key ideas after writing/drawing. One of the things I loved from the videos was that people went back over their experience of drawing and observing and gained new insights. I would like to take a page each month for a reflection on what I have already drawn or written. I loved the description of what the spider was doing and liked the idea of adding specific notations on behavior where possible. The journalists seemed to both work out the colors and "how to draw" along with how to observe and what to observe. This is exactly the juxtaposition of art and science I would like to try out in a journal.

I love being in nature.  I try to  catch as many specifics in my surroundings.  I also love feeding & watching birds.  I saw the course offered on the Cornell site & thought it would be a good way to learn more about my surroundings. I am retired & started journaling about my daily activities, thoughts, feelings ... I also took a watercolor class at my local Art Museum school & I thought the combination of nature journaling made sense. All of the journals were unique & interesting—I really liked the organization of Shayna’s, her use to study with it. I really want to try the idea of a daily or monthly journal os sketches, observations, & specifics/details of what I see. I do not have a specific idea for my journal yet—that will come.

1. I’ve been doing some drawing and painting for fun, and have even taken a painting class, and nature journaling seemed like a great way to combine the fun of drawing with really paying attention to nature and capturing (or attempting to, at least) its beauty in a really personal way. 2. All are really interesting. I liked the inset/boxed-in images approach, and also the attempt to draw one thing per day (though that would be really challenging!). I’m sure I’ll end up with some mix of all these approaches, and it’s probably good to vary and try different things, too. 3. Not yet, but I’m sure I’ll end up with my own style at some point.

1. I've always loved being outside in nature, exploring, hiking, listening to the sounds of nature, enjoying the smells & sights, as a child, with my parents & grandparents. Nature journaling will finally give me an organized place to keep all the memories & older items, (pebbles, dried leaves, twigs, & the old feathers of birds), that my parents and I would watch for. 2. I think that I will be inspired by Shayna Miller (use the boxes for the drawings), Jewel Alston (add a watercolor key to some of my drawings), D.J. McNeil (use simple behavior drawings), & Holly Faulkner mostly (incorporate a monthly drawing, using both watercolors & pencil), but I've learned lots from all the journalists. 3. Surprisedly I do. I live on a 5-acre parcel of land that is bordered by my husband's family farm on 3 sides & the National Forest on the 4th. I grow lots of Native flowers & trees and I have pressed flowers, petals, & leaves that I hope to add some 3 dimensional texture to my journaling pages.

1. My daughter inspired me to begin nature journaling. She and I share a love of birding, and she told me that nature journaling was awakening her creative side. I also feel that "nudge," so I signed up for the class. We live on 38 acres of wooded property. 2. I would like to use my nature journal as a record of observed species, and to practice my drawing/watercolor techniques. It will be fun to review my journals and notice seasonal patterns. 3. I might also record how I am feeling about the animals/plant life/fungi I'm observing/drawing. Being out in nature is a stress reliever for me.

I really like Shayna's use of the boxes to separate the images from the text in an elegant manner.

Enduring the Covid-19 pandemic, I've been trying to find ways to be creative during my time at home. Last month (April), I wrote a song (or sometimes a "song-let") each day. This month, I decided to sketch daily. I have a wonderful book on nature journaling (John Muir Laws' guide to nature journaling) and I'd signed up for this course awhile back, so I thought this beautiful spring morning, May 2, 2020, was a wonderful day to start my next 30-day challenge. I took my sketchbook outdoors and observed a few things in my backyard. I'm looking forward to the days ahead, learning and practicing and, hopefully, developing a good habit.

I have a keen interest in nature and spend many hours alone enjoying the woods near my home.    I do not have any art experience at all but wanted to explore that side of myself.   This course seemed like a good way to combine my interests. I really like the idea of a monthly page in my journal.     Where I live is very seasonal and it would be fun to capture the monthly rhythms with art.    We’ll see how it goes!  Jenny

I just joined today (April 30th) and haven't read through all the replies but empathize with us all for reaching out for focus, art, and observation.    I am an avid bird watcher, sometime artist (when I don't get distracted) and garden person.  I enjoyed all the journals - about how they can be a process, don't have to be a final product, can be focused on shape and pattern (D.J.), beautifully rendered(Holly), enthusiastic about color and shadow (Blue Footed Boobies and rocks - William), organized and synergistic with illustration and writing observations(Jayna), and observing and playing with color and palettes (Jewell).  I also liked Margaret's pondering about the hummingbird and stages of observation.  Onward! Geri

For one sketching is just cool. I really like looking at other people's sketchbook. I teach and absolutely love having students practice their sketching skills. Of course, many think they cannot draw and once I get them started, I am always amazed at what they end up doing. I am convinced this is a healthy exercise not only for the study of natural sciences, but also to keep balance in our fast-paced world. Journaling is an obvious bridge between art and science. I want to improve my observation skills and eye/mind/hand coordination to represent on paper what I see. Choosing one journal was really difficult. I like Jewel's humbleness, Margaret's study of hummingbirds, and Holly's determination all stick out. I overall preferred D.J.'s spider entry. His taking the time to properly observe behaviour and sketching it is closer to what I want to accomplish.

Journaling my thoughts and feelings have always been therapeutic for me. Due to COVID-19, I decided to finally decided to try a new hobby: watercolor painting. This course seems like the perfect way to blend the two. I am a recent graduate of wildlife biology so I would love to use this practice to enhance my field skills and continue to be curious about nature. I liked Shayna Muller's and Holly Faulkner's journals. Many people have mentioned how Shayna used that zoom in approach, which is something I would like to try. I tend to become hung up on layout (blank pages can be intimidating). So I would like to jump in and make it more collage-like and random. Which brings me to my goals for this class. I get caught up in the notion that art needs to be perfect. My goal for this class would be to let go of all expectations and allow myself to feel the simple joy creation can bring.