Tips for Keeping a Field Journal

Over the years, I’ve taught a number of workshops on keeping a field journal. It’s a great way to get outside, clear your mind, and learn about where you are. The 20 minutes suggested below might be a long time for wintery day, depending on where you are. Adjust as temperatures and blizzards permit. Here’s how to get started. 

Tools (Most are optional):
Notebook with unlined paper
Writing utensils: pen, colored pencils
Field guides
Magnifying glass
Ruler
Camera
Binoculars

First: Find a spot that appeals to you, where you can spend 20 minutes.

Second: Document where you are. Note the day, time, location, weather, and something you experience with each of your five senses.

Third: Use one of the following prompts and start writing. 

1) Observe an animal (or, if you can't find one, a plant). Keep it in sight or hearing as long as you can. What is it doing? What does it remind you of? How does it interact with other parts of the landscape? Can you identify it? Do you need a sketch to help you look it up later? Alternatively, look for and record all the places you think an animal might have been. Can you find a evidence of chewing or nesting? A feather? A path?

2) Record the landscape at three different scales. Look at the big picture (Imagine you are looking from a plane, for example. Can you find evidence of geology? How does water move? How does topography shape settlement patterns? How it this place situated in time? What did the landscape look like 100 years ago? A thousand?); scan the mid-range (This is roughly a human scale. What are dogs doing? Crows? What happens on top of the traffic lights or in stairwells? How is the land configured and used maybe thirty feet around you?); then study an object or organism (not human built) very closely. (Find something—a pinecone, a leaf, a moth wing—that can fit in your palm and observe it intimately.) How does your experience of the world change at each scale? 

 Fourth: Write three questions about your observations.

 When You Get Home: Revisit your notes. Flesh out moments and observations that you didn't have time to do justice to in the field, identify plants and animals you were unsure about, color in your sketches, try to answer your questions.

Repeat as Desired.