For this class you are required to do two outdoor experiences in which you make observations about the environment and write about your experience and how it relates to the class. This exercise is meant to help you experience the outdoors, but it also introduces you to the practice of nature journaling. While you only have to do two outdoor experiences, you might consider starting a nature journal that you keep throughout the semester and even after the class is over.

One of the best ways to get to know the natural world around you is to start keeping a nature journal. A nature journal is simply an ongoing account of your observations about the natural world illustrated with drawings or photographs. In addition to observations about the natural world it might include your own written reflections about what you are seeing and what it means to you or perhaps even poetry inspired by what you observe and experience. As you can see from my own examples, you don't have to be much of an artist to keep a nature journal. This page will give you some tips about starting your own nature journal. I provide examples from my own nature journal documenting my explorations of the Indiana Dunes.

What You Need to Get Started

The most basic tools for a nature journal are simply pencil or pen and paper. In my own nature journal kit I take along the following

• A notebook small nougat to fit in a day pack.
• A pencil
• Two or three different sized fine tip pens for sketching
• Colored pencils and/or watercolor pencils
• A pencil sharpener
• An eraser

I also carry a camera and sometimes a video camera to document things that I don't have time to sit down and sketch. I may include photographs in my journal. Sometimes I draw from photographs or video footage after I get back home, especially when the weather is cold.

Keeping your Journal

When you go outside find a nice place to sit and observe what you see, hear, smell, and feel around you. Open your journal and take down some basic observations:

• Date
• Place
• Time
• Weather (including wind direction, cloud patterns and cloud cover, temperature, precipitation)

Then write down some of your first impressions of the place where you are sitting? What do you see? What kinds of plants do you see? Are they trees? Shrubs? Flowers? Grasses? What animal and insect life do you see or hear? From what direction is it coming? What do you see on the ground? Leaves? Seeds? Insects? Footprints of an animal? What do you see at eye level? What is overhead? What do you observe about the whole landscape? What is the topography like? Are you in a valley or depression? On a hilltop? On a beach? What evidence of human impact do you observe if any?

Write your observations down in your journal. Then look around some more. Is there something that you have observed that you would like to know more about? Pick something and create a quick sketch. A leaf on the ground is a good starting point. Don't worry about getting it right. Start with a basic outline of its shape, and then fill in the details. What kind of tree did this leaf fall off of? If you don't know you can use your sketch to find out later. Pick something else to sketch? You might try sketching a nearby tree. Don't worry about getting the details right. See if you can evoke the structure of its branches and the texture of its leaves.

The point is not to produce a realistic sketch, but rather to provide a prompt for your memory. You might annotate your sketch with your observations about what you are sketching. You might estimate its size for example.

Drawing animals can be a challenge because unlike flowers they don't sit still that long. That's OK, take a mental snapshot and try drawing the form and shape of the animal from memory. When there's not time for a sketch I try to take a photograph. The photograph of the Great Blue Heron on this web site is an example of one such photograph that is a part of my nature journal. Sometimes I try drawing animals from photographs that I have taken when I get home.

Before you leave or after you get home you can annotate your journal with details of your trip. Where did you go? What did you see? You might create a map of your outdoor experience for the day. Create a simple sketch map of a hike or a bike ride, noting along the route what you saw. Sketch a general map of the path you took, referring to a trail map or just from memory. Annotate the map with notes about what you saw along the path. A map like this might be a great illustration for the text of your outdoor experience reflection paper.

An interesting exercise to try with your nature journal is to visit the same location throughout the year. For the past year I have been visiting a spot along the Dune Ridge trail in the national lakeshore. Each time I visit I jot down observations about what has changed since I was last there and take a photograph from roughly the same spot. As you can see from the two photos included below, the changes can be quite dramatic.

As you develop your nature journal you will find yourself learning more about your surroundings. Consciously observing and sketching the environment helps you to pay attention to the diversity of different kinds of plants and animals around you. When I first started my nature journal I couldn't tell an oak apart from a maple. Now I know the difference and furthermore I can tell the difference between a white oak and a black oak (at least when they have leaves on them.)

My spot along the Dune Ridge trail in April (left) and in June (right). In April only a few grasses and wildflowers appear on the forest floor. By June the area is alive with all kinds of vegetation and the sounds of frogs and birds fill the air.

Resources for Nature Journaling and the Indiana Dunes

Books

Clare Walker Leslie and Charles E. Roth. 2000. Keeping a Nature Journal: Discover a New Way of Seeing the World Around You. Storey Publishing.

This is the book that got my nature journal started. It has numerous tips about starting a nature journal, prompts to get you started, and tips for drawing. It is available at the book store at the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore visitor's center.

Glenda Daniel. 1984. Dune Country: A Hiker's Guide to the Indiana Dunes. Swallow Press.

This is an excellent introduction to the plants and animals of the Indiana Dunes. While some of the trail information is out of date, the sketches are incredibly useful for identifying some of the plants and trees that you see hiking in the dunes. It is available at the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore visitor's center.

Web Sites

North American Amphibian Monitoring program includes an Indiana web site that has a handy guide to identifying frogs and toads in the state complete with recordings of their calls. Useful for identifying the frog calls that you hear as you roam around the dunes, and around town, in the spring.