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Another day, another opportunity to get outside and get journaling! Over the past two weeks we’ve talked about different ways to track changes in the season and embrace the month of May! It is the perfect time of year to get outside and see what lives near and around our homes as animals and plants prepare for the summer months. Thank you to everyone who has been sharing your nature journaling journey with us, it is incredible to see all the wildlife you’ve been able to explore. Below are some great examples of what community members have been observing during the exciting month of May. On the left, Janet Bednarz documents a cluster of Toad Trillium and Ostrich Fern Fiddleheads at the NRT! This is a wonderful example of how creating a contour drawing can help to capture the shape and essence of a subject before adding details such as texture and color. On the right is a popping depiction of the different stages of blossoms from one single branch on a local shrub. Thank you for sharing!
This week we are going to focus on something that isn’t always obvious when we step outside – the insects in our lives! It may be hard to believe, but insects are the most diverse group of animals on this planet and there are over 900,000 documented species of insects around the world. It is predicted that at any given moment, there are more than one quintillion six legged critters wandering this planet at once and for every pound of human weight that is on earth, there are 300 pounds of insect weight! For anyone wondering, a quintillion looks like this: 1,000,000,000,000,000,000! You’re probably thinking, if that were the case, wouldn’t we have to be constantly surrounded by insects? Well, we are! Because of their small size, ability to move quickly, and excellent camouflage skills, insects are tricky to spot but they really are everywhere! This week’s task is all about finding some six-legged invertebrates and getting to know them through journaling. Some Basics Not all of the small, scuttling macroinvertebrates wandering around are insects. There are some key characteristics that distinguish insects from other bug groups. Two of the major things you can look for when trying to identify an insect are:
Try to find some small, crawly critters near you and figure out if they are in fact insects, or possibly something else! When it comes to journaling about insects, there are many different approaches you can take. One way to start finding insects near you is to open your ears. Many insects make distinct sounds by rubbing different parts of their bodies together. Think crickets, grasshoppers, and cicadas. You can follow these sounds to try and find exactly who is making what noise. It may be helpful to have an insect guide on hand, so that you know what to look for and where these insects are most likely to be found. Once you are ready to draw your insect, you only really have to draw half of them! Insects are bilaterally symmetrical, which means that the right side of their body and the left side of their body is exactly the same. For drawing purposes this means that you only have to focus on half of the insect while it is in front of you and then you can recreate the other half as a mirror image at your leisure. Below is a great example of the steps you can take when drawing an insect from Clare Walker-Leslie and Charles E. Roth’s Keeping A Nature Journal.  This week, challenge yourself to go on a bug hunt (idea taken from Clare Walker Leslie’s The Nature Connection).
Head out to your backyard, or a local green space and see what you can find! Once you’ve caught your insects, you can sketch them, make note of how large they are, notice what their eyes look like, observe if they have wings or antennae, and take note of anything else you see! After you’ve gotten everything you can from them, be sure to put your insects right back where you found them. This activity can be done without catching any insects and simply by observing them in their natural habitat – whatever works best for you!
Good luck finding some interesting insects and as always if you have any observations or journal entries you’d like to share with us, please email them to [email protected]. Happy nature journaling!
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 May is known for the number of birds that travel north for the Summer to nest, but there is another great migration taking place that people may not be aware of. The butterfly migration! Most notably is perhaps the Monarch butterfly who makes a 3000 mile journey from Mexico all the way to the Northeast U.S. and even as far as Canada.
Although it takes many generations to make the trip north, in the Fall, it is one super generation that flies the entire 3000 mile journey south over a period of about 3 months. Unlike many insects, Monarchs are not able to overwinter in cold climates, which is one of the reasons they are thought to make this incredible journey twice throughout the year.
There is not much known about why there is one super generation that seems to dramatically outlive the other generations of Monarchs, or why the butterflies make this long journey. There are, however, many ongoing scientific research projects looking at the benefits of these migrations. Some theories are that the butterflies are following their food sources or that the migration could even be a way to weed out parasites within the population! For more information on Monarch migration check out these great resources:
In Massachusetts, we can start to expect Monarchs to show up from now until mid-June, so keep your eyes open for those bright orange beauties! If you have Milkweed in your garden, be sure to monitor the leaves for the different stages of the Monarch's lifecycle!  It’s hard to believe that we are already halfway through May and we haven’t even gone on an official Nature Quest! This idea is taken from Clare Walker Leslie’s book, The Nature Connection, which perfectly lays out all the best ways to embrace nature in each month. There’s a lot going on in the month May, birds are arriving for the Summer, flowers are blooming, animals are going through metamorphosis and so much more! Here are some things you can do this May to help you embrace the changing world around you (all from The Nature Connection). 1. Take a walk outdoors and imagine you lived 2,500 years ago!
5. Learn about some of the leaves you should not pick
 6. Relax with a good book
All of these activities can be recorded and documented in your nature journal! Another great way to keep track of what’s going on around you through journaling is to go on a Nature Quest! This is a simple way to get you looking around and seeing what is happening in the natural world. Go for a walk and just take in your surroundings. Be sure to use all five of your senses. What do you hear? What can you see? Is there anything that jumps out at you? Think about how what you are observing holds clues to what season we are in right now! One way set up your nature quest is with a guide in your journal. Pick four or five things you are hoping to find and make a checklist. Next, go outside and try to find them! Keep track of those sights, smells, and sounds happening all around you as well as anything you can feel or even taste! Make a list of other things you find that you weren’t expecting!  Try to go on one nature quest this week to see what’s happening in the middle of May! If you find anything unique, or want to share your journal pages, please email [email protected]. We always look forward to seeing what the community finds!
What is it about snakes?
Why are there so many deflated snakes on the ground?! Another intriguing thing about snakes, and all reptiles, is that they never actually stop growing! Each snake species has an average size that they reach at maturity, but they will never truly stop increasing in size. The rate at which they grow dramatically decreases once they reach maturity, but as long as they can continue to eat, they will continue to grow. We can see this happen when snakes shed, which is just another very cool and slightly mysterious thing that snakes do. Interestingly enough, all animals (even humans!) shed throughout their lives, we just don’t do it all at once like the snake. Unlike humans and other animals, a snake's skin will stretch, but cannot grow with the snake. When the snake skin is no longer able to stretch with the snake, it will become a shed and the snake will wriggle its way out. Many of us have come across snake skins in the wild and they can be a little bit unsettling if you aren’t sure what they are. The more a snake eats, the more it will shed, but on average, snakes shed about 2-3 times per years. Perhaps the ability to completely shed their skin and “transform” many times throughout their lives is just another reason that humans have been so fascinated by snakes throughout history.
There's so much more! There are a lot of extremely unique adaptations that snakes have, from their coloration all the way to their individual behaviors. There just isn't enough blog space in the world to talk about all of it! Some great resources for looking up snake facts, both locally and worldwide are: - Mass Audubon's Snakes of Massachusetts - National Geographic Snake Facts - Live Science Snake Facts Snakes can be tricky to spot in the wild, and I often notice them after I've scared them away, but if you keep your eyes and ears open, you may just be able to spot one on your next walk. They love basking in the midday sun to get energy and they are great at camouflaging with their surroundings. Next time you go for a walk on a sunny day, take time to watch the ground near and around where your stepping for any movement! Last entry was all about birds, and we received some awesome examples from community members who were able to capture the essence these fast, feathery creatures! Thank you! It feels like within the last two weeks the local bird activity has increased dramatically. It’s hard to know if this is because I was journaling about them so they seemed more abundant, or if there are more birds around, or a little bit of both. Either way, it has been such a joy to watch them and try to learn more about their unique behaviors and lifestyles.
As we talked about last week, one way to hone in our observation skills is to focus on something very specific. Last week it was birds, and the idea was to start with something like a photograph and then move on to trying to capture them in the natural world. Another way to focus our observational skills is to create journal entries around the various seasons. Seasonal changes can be a really helpful reference, especially when looking at the phenology of an area. Phenology is a branch of science that studies the relationship between climate and periodic animal and plant lifecycles such as budding, migrating, and blooming. Nature journals are an incredible tool for looking at when these major seasonal changes begin to happen over a long period of time. There are a couple of different ways you can cater your journaling to fit a specific season, so I will go through a few of them. Everything I talk about will be taken from either The Nature Connection by Clare Walker Leslie or Keeping a Nature Journal by Clare Walker Leslie and Charles E. Roth, both are exceptional resources if you are looking to learn more about nature journaling!  Each year, especially in Massachusetts, we can count on a fairly dramatic changes in weather, landscape and wildlife activity with each new season. Lucky for us, this means we all have a pretty great base understanding of what to expect during the different times of the year. We are in the height of Spring at the moment, so I will be focusing on springtime phenomena, but a lot of these activities can be done during any time of the year! As a reminder, when you are in the field, be sure to record time, temperature, cloud coverage, weather, and any other details you think may help you when looking back through your data. Springtime in New England is known for being a damp season filled with showers, as we have definitely been experiencing over the last couple of weeks. With an abundance of fresh hydration, comes some really incredible opportunities for nature! This is when our amphibian friends thrive in vernal pools, our decomposers do some of their best work, and our plants are finally energized enough to start sprouting out of the ground! Here is a list of things you can do in the Spring to try and capture some of these incredible changes:
Another great way to make observations in the Springtime is to focus on a specific branch, plant, or small area and draw it every other day. You’ll find that a lot changes in just a short period of time. You may start by sketching a budding branch and in just a couple of days have a limb completely covered in flowers! By revisiting the same vegetation, you can document when budding begins and how long it takes for a bud to turn into a flower, or for leaves to begin to unfurl. All of this is great information when looking at phenology.
For next week, I challenge you to document some of the change that is going on around you. You can do this by looking for signs of Spring that you know are happening, or by observing one specific piece of nature and revisiting every day or every other day to see how it evolves. I also challenge you to make some personal connections to what Springtime has to offer and check-in with yourself in the coming week. As always, if you would like to share some of your journaling efforts or have any suggestions for our community, feel free to email [email protected]. Until next time!
Take a Closer Look...
Nearby my local pond, in a slightly wooded area still covered with leaves from the previous fall, I decided to flip over a few damp logs to see what other amphibians were lurking around. I was excited that two salamanders, one blue-spotted and one red-backed, were resting underneath! The recent weather has been ideal for searching for frogs and salamanders. If you have access to a small body of water, chances are you’ll be able to find some kind of amphibian life nearby. Damp days are great for searching, amphibians need at least some moisture in the ground or air in order to survive. This is why it must be raining on the “big night.” Underneath logs is a great place to find salamanders. If you are adventurous enough to start flipping over logs, be sure to put them back gently as to not smoosh anything underneath. Another key thing to remember about amphibians is that their skin is very permeable. This means that liquids, gases, and contaminants can pass through it very easily. It is important that you do not pick up or hold any of the amphibians that you find. You may risk getting the oils from your skin or lotion that you used earlier in the day inside of their bodies, which could be potentially deadly. We are often bombarded by Spring Peepers and it seems that the only salamanders that are crawling around are the Red-Backed Salamanders, but below are some other local amphibians you can keep an eye out for this Spring! Wow! I can’t believe we are almost one month into our nature journaling journey! We have explored how to take in our surroundings on both the small and large scales, as well as how to keep our eyes peeled for the little bits of nature that are all around us. Nature journaling is an opportunity for continuous growth and each time we sit down to contemplate our surroundings and look a little closer, we learn something new and hone in our skills. The more we get outside to journal, the better our entries will be and the more improvement we will be able to see overtime as both artists and observers. Last week, we were challenged to take in our surroundings through landscapes! I was so delighted to see the different examples of landscapes that were brought to the attention of the NRT. Below, we have two amazing entries of two very different scenes. The top entry is a local canal, and the one below is the night sky!   As we journal more and more, it can sometimes be helpful to follow unique prompts to keep us on our toes and engaging with our surroundings in new ways. Even as we become avid nature journalers, it can be easy to overlook some aspects of the natural world. Now that we've got the basics down, and you are all exploring different mediums and tools that work best for you, I think we can start making some more specific observations.
Drawing birds may seem daunting at first, but there are a few helpful hints from our favorite nature journaling guru Clare Walker Leslie that I would like to share. The first being that it becomes much easier to draw a bird when you explore their basic anatomy. What is even going on underneath all those feathers!? Below is a wonderful depiction from Keeping a Nature Journal that shows the internal bone structure of a bird and how it relates to what we are able to see! Figuring out the internal anatomy of a bird is as easy as a google search, and although birds come in many shapes and sizes, their general bone structure stays pretty consistent. If you are really interested in learning what's underneath all those feathers, you can also look up bird muscle structure and investigate what makes them such strong fliers! 
A great way to begin exploring the method of sketching that works best for you is to start with a photograph! This will allow you to spend time observing the different characteristics of the bird and the relative size of certain attributes before it is fluttering about in front of you. Things to take note of on birds are beak shape and length, eye size and color, any distinct markings or coloration, and leg length and color. I challenge you to identify three local birds in your area, and draw a sketch of each of them. These sketches can be from and image, or from a bird you are seeing in the wild! Have a great time, and as always, if you would like to share your work with the NRT and the community, feel free to send photos to [email protected]. Until next week!
 I hope you are not all suffering too hard from the post-Earth Day blues! If you didn’t know, yesterday, April 22, was Earth Day. Some of us may have missed it – as it is usually brought to our attention by the cute crafts and activities facilitated by the schools. Despite schools being closed and Earth Day sneaking up on us (it’s almost May!), there seems to be a lot of appreciation going around these days for our green spaces and the natural beauty of our beloved planet. Although things seem a little confusing on the planet right now and it may be difficult to see an end in sight, I am constantly reminding myself that something beautiful often comes from times of distress. A phoenix rising from the ashes, if you will. It is that mentality got me wondering about the first Earth Day and what the circumstances were that caused us to dedicate a day to loving our planet, rather than appreciating it every waking moment of our lives. Was there some major event? Were we abusing resources? What was going on and who declared Earth Day?! How have things changed since?
Senator Gaylord Nelson, who is the founder of Earth Day, took it upon himself to share his concerns about a lack of regulations for large industrial corporations. By providing a platform for the global community to share their concerns for the planet through Earth Day, groups that had once been fighting for environmental initiatives separately, were able to join forces to create a much larger impact on the people that needed to hear them.
After the first Earth Day in the Spring of 1970, where 20 million Americans demonstrated across the country, changes started to happen! In December of the very same year, congress authorized the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency! The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA for short), is an executive agency of the United States government dedicated to helping businesses make sound environmental choices in order to protect our green spaces and our planet! The EPA is responsible for what we know as the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act, which directly address toxic waste emissions from large industrial complexes and even small businesses – exactly what the 20 million Americans gathered to change on the first Earth Day in 1970. For its 50th anniversary, Earth Day Network has shifted the focus to a global crisis – climate action. It is not surprise that we are starting to see the effects of a changing global climate in our everyday lives, but what actions can we take to encourage a thriving environment for future generations and even for our future selves? With the many hurtles that face climate change initiatives, come infinite opportunities to shape a world dedicated to its environment and that respects the planet that gives us everything. Although this year's Earth Day was slightly different, as many people are being encouraged to stay home and not gather in large crowds, there are still a number of ways to show your support for Earth and the issues being addressed by the Earth Day Network. For a list of ways to support the Earth Day Network initiatives, and for more information on the history and future of Earth Day, check out: https://www.earthday.org/earth-day-50th-anniversary/ To explore more about the EPA and history of Earth Day on them, check out: https://www.epa.gov/history/epa-history-earth-day One of the best and extremely satisfying things you can do to help planet Earth is to take a pledge to change something about your life that has a positive environmental impact. This can be adding something to your life, or even eliminating something. It can even be changing something about your routine (i.e. shorter showers). Although it may seem minuscule, if each of us takes action, no matter how small, there is hope for a prosperous future of appreciating our planet and helping it thrive. I have my pledge to reduce my use of plastic straws right next to my door along with a reminder of where I keep my metal straws. It’s just the nudge I need as I head out for the day to keep me thinking about my impact on the planet. I love going out for coffee and it’s not something I am willing to give up at this point, but being at home all day has definitely shown me that I don’t actually NEED that much coffee in my life. Even though Earth Day has passed for this year, don’t feel like it is too late to make a positive environmental impact. It’s something that we can all strive to be better at each and every day. I hope everyone was able to spend some time either drawing, documenting, or at least taking note of the types of clouds they were seeing over the past week. It was quite a display! We had rain, snow and sunshine in the short seven days, classic New England. Here is an example of some of the weather observations I was able over that past week, which I will admit, are not extremely detailed. They will at least help me to see patterns when I look back at some of my other observations from this time.  Now that we have taken the time to observe cloud coverage and investigate what that means for the weather, and we’ve gotten familiar with drawing different types of nature found around us, let’s move on to landscapes! Landscape observations are another great tool to help set the scene for some of our more detailed observations and they can be great indicators of season and time of year. There are many different ways to observe a landscape, and remember in true nature journaling fashion, there is no wrong or right way to do it. I’m just going to go through some techniques that will help you figure out how you would like to approach capturing the scene. The first thing to think about is the season in which you are making your observations. This can be helpful because it lets you know what to expect. Of course, things in nature can always change and it is always exciting to find something new and interesting, but knowing what to expect can help you prepare as far as what you are going to wear, what you will bring with you, the colors you will choose to bring outside with you, and guide you as far as what to be looking for and why things look the way that they do.
You can also think about other animals that may be living in the landscape you are observing and consider whether it would be a suitable home for birds, mammals, insects, reptiles, or even fish! Knowing what kinds of animals to find in your landscape will help you to interpret the meaning of the overall picture as you are taking it in.
A general observation to keep in mind when taking in landscape is the moisture around you. That can either be what the air feels like, or if it is raining, snowing, sleeting, etc. Also be sure to note any changes in warm in cool weather, especially here in New England, where every day seems to be a surprise. Knowing what to expect when taking in a scene can be a really helpful guide and it will allow you to notice the unexpected much more easily. Once you know what to look for when drawing a landscape – noting any animal behavior, what the trees and plants look like, and what the weather looks like – drawing the landscape is easy! It helps to start with simple shapes and to draw the more obvious landmarks first. Once you have some landmark points, you can start to fill in the details. This drawing is taken from another one of Clare Walker-Leslie’s books, The Nature Connection. You can see that the actual drawings aren’t super detailed, but that there are lots of great notes to enhance the observations. Clare has even noted what part of the scene is the background, middleground and foreground.  Like most nature journaling, there is no wrong or right way to draw a landscape and the point isn’t to get everything perfect. You just want to take a moment to take in the landscape with a little more detail than you have in the past and make connections with what you are seeing. This week, challenge yourself by finding somewhere new or familiar that you can really spend some time drawing the landscape. Be aware of the plants and animals you are hearing and seeing and use those nature clues to enhance your observations! Your landscape can be a big outdoor space, but it can also be your street or your backyard. Remember, there is nature everywhere!
As usual, if you want to share your observations and sketches, or if you have any questions, feel free to email us at [email protected]. Until next week!  One of my favorite feelings is going outside and knowing that in the absolute worst case scenario, I could find something to eat. A few years ago, I was pleasantly surprised to learn about all the different things you can do with some of our local plants! A lot of edible plants can be found right in your backyard! If you are inspired to head outside and start looking for your own wild edibles, I want to remind everybody that not all plants are safe to eat. If you are unsure, it is best not to eat it. As with any food, there is also the risk of allergies associated with eating new things, so please use caution! Here are some local plants that you can prepare as food, and as an added bonus, they are great sources of our vitamins A, B, and C! Vitamin A 
Vitamin B 
Vitamin C 
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