Alisha

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