Saturday, November 18, 2017

The Nature Pages: The Naturalist's Notebook.


This book is both a guide to nature journaling and a calendar for recording events and observations by date over a five-year period. Inspired by the garden calendar of Gilbert White in the 18th century, it is designed to accommodate brief periodic natural history observations that evoke an "immersion in the familiar" that assure "all is right with the world."

The text suggests ways to become a more attentive and observant naturalist. It explains how to record and organize observations of the natural world so as to better analyze them and recognize subtle patterns. And it describes simple experiments like putting a plastic bag over the buds on a tree to see if it hastens budding. Or changing the mix or quantities of seed in birdfeeders to see what difference it makes in the birds that come to dine.

An Observation Guide and 5-Year Calendar-Journal
by Nathaniel T. Wheelwright and Bernd Heinrich. 324 pp. Mariner Books, 2017.

continued in The Nature Pages

The Nature Pages
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