I sat for five minutes trying to be part of the cattails, snow, ice, bare trees, rabbit tracks and the flock of starlings sashaying through off-and-on bursts of sun at Russell R. Kirt Prairie.
A minute in, the buzzing of my phone interrupted when our daughter texted.
My first nature journaling began with baby steps.
For the past few years, I’ve worked on expanding my outdoors world; expanding my mind.
When our youngest reached the age where he could be alone when he came home from school, I deliberately started.
First came my master naturalist certification. Once accepted into the program, run by the Illinois Extension (extension.illinois.edu/mn), you take a course of several months. To maintain certification, hours of education and service are required each year.
As somebody who fancies himself as knowing the natural world, it was incredibly humbling. There were experts, such as Mike Ward, senior ornithologist for the Illinois Natural History Survey, who came up from Champaign to teach our class. In a midday walk, he rattled off the names of the birds calling as easily as a ballplayer spits sunflower seeds.
The next year, I earned my Master Gardener certification (extension.illinois.edu/mg) in the same basic structure as master naturalist. Again I was incredibly humbled, this time even by classmates who already knew more than I ever would.
It doesn’t need to be a perfect scene, such as the beauty of cherry-blossoms time in April at the University of Illinois Arboretum, to begin natural journaling and to contemplate the outdoors.
Dale Bowman
Next were spotter trainings. Outdoor sorts are weather nuts of varying degrees. So imagine sitting in a room with dozens of others as nutty about weather as you are, it’s like being in a brigade of Tom Skilling clones. It’s glorious. Out of enjoyment as much as for gaining knowledge, I’ve started doing a refresher every year or so. Classes this spring are online (weather.gov/lot/spotter_talk).
The pandemic interrupted my plans to do a tree identification course, but I will, probably with the Morton Arboretum or Openlands, or both.
In a roundabout way, the pandemic is how I ended up nature journaling.
During the pandemic, Chris Evans, interim master naturalist coordinator, started doing monthly Zoom sessions on various topics. Before the pandemic, Evans came up from southern Illinois to teach a course on tree identification and pushed us to use iNaturalist or Seek apps. It’s something I still value.
Because of Zoom, Evans can have experts all around Illinois present on topics across the state. I take in many sessions.
In December, Evans had Wendy Ferguson, horticulture program coordinator for Henderson, Knox, McDonough and Warren Counties, present on “Benefits of Nature Journaling.”
The benefits are broad.
- Calms your mind and increases your attention to detail and appreciation of beauty.
- Improves your recognition of different animal and plant species, and your understanding of where and how they live.
- Creates new pathways in the brain with which to store your memories.
- Strengthens hand-eye coordination.
- With time, it can improve your ability to observe, draw and write.
Ferguson drew me in enough that I had one of our kids buy me a Strathmore 400 Series Sketch Paper Pad from Michaels for Christmas.
On Jan. 13, after viewing Tony Fitzpatrick’s “Jesus of Western Avenue” exhibit at College of DuPage, I began nature journaling by walking Kirt Prairie within the COD natural areas.
Drawing is central to nature journaling, but I suck at drawing. Words I find easier to work. So I cobbled a haiku out of walking/sitting Kirt Prairie.
Snow, starling racket, cattails, stark bare trees. Scudding clouds parse long shadows.
It’s a journey, I’ll take the time to expand my mind.
