3 Ways to Keep a Naturalist's Notebook
"In a picture you only take a part of the view; but in nature the whole..."
Earth Day has arrived, and with it bird song and cherry blossoms in Brooklyn. I have watched the trees outside my window come to life with new leaf, growing greener by the day. Thinking about Rachel Carson has sharpened my appreciation for the natural world, and it’s shown up in my own note-taking. I find myself spending more time outdoors with my notebook. Perhaps you have as well.
In honor of Earth Day, I’m sharing three ways to keep a notebook like a naturalist. I hope you’ll try some of them!
1. Collect Specimens
Writing something in a notebook is a way of saying, “this interests me; I want to think about it further.” Just as we might write out a favorite quote, why not collect a blade of grass or a wildflower?
Here, I’m thinking of the great Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), whose love of nature breathes through her poetry as well as the collection of pressed flowers she began as a child.
Dickinson’s “Herbarium” is a gorgeously designed collection of flowers. She began it at around the age of 8. By the time she was 14 years old, she had filled it with around 400 specimens.
Dickinson’s interest was botanical as well as aesthetic. In her lifetime, she was known for her talent as a gardener.
Another fascinating specimen-collection comes from the naturalist George Washington Carver (1864 –1943). Known in his day for his work on fighting soil depletion through the use of natural fertilizers, Carver also studied and documented fungus. In fact, several fungi are named after him. Here’s one: Metasphaeria Carveri.
Be like Carver: discover something new (or new to you), and name it after yourself!
2. Record your Walks
A naturalist’s job often involves long walks through nature. Someone like John Muir (1838-1914), who helped create the U.S. national park system took very long walks—including “The Thousand Mile Walk” from Louisville Kentucky to the Gulf of Mexico. He brought notebooks to keep him company. Here’s one:
I have long been looking from the wild woods and gardens of the northern states to those of the warm south, and at last, all drawbacks overcome, I set forth on the first day of September 1867 joyful and free on a thousand mile walk to the Gulf of Mexico.
Your walks need not be as extensive as Muir’s, but why not follow his lead and pause to sketch out a scene?
Among my favorite nature writers is Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834). He drew maps of his walks through the Lake District. While researching my book (which has a full chapter on Coleridge), I went for a walk in the Lake District, taking a transcribed copy of his notebooks along as a guide.
One of my favorite things about Coleridge’s nature notes is that he’ll add sketches into his sentences, as though his simple line drawings are words. Here’s an example from my own notes —the image comes from the Collected Edition of Coleridge’s Notebooks:1
3. Observe Animals
When Jane Goodall (b. 1934) studied chimpanzees in Tanzania, she filled stacks of notebooks with her observations. She came up with her own abbreviations: for example, “F” refers to “feeding.” Her notes also include delightful illustrations of the chimpanzees.
Jane Goodall was one of the first to note how individual chimps have different personalities and behaviors. She created logs for each chimp—more on this in this week’s postscript.
Another favorite nature-lover, Beatrix Potter (1866-1943), owned a pet rabbit. She called him Benjamin Bouncer, or “Bounce” for short. Wanting to draw Bounce, she fed the unsuspecting animal “a cup full of hemp seeds” in an attempt to sedate him. The result, however, was that
he was partially intoxicated and wholly unmanageable…I…lay awake chuckling till 2 in the morning.2
As was her custom, Potter drew sketches to better understand the natural world. This sketch helped Potter create her most famous character: Peter Rabbit.
We can all be naturalists—all we need is a notebook and a patch of nature to observe. I hope you’ll take some time today to go outside and take some notes!
I leave you with this note I made last week while wandering the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and thinking about Rachel Carson.
Noted is fueled by you. Your ❤️’s and comments inspire me. As always, I would love to know your thoughts. Do you have a favorite naturalist or conservationist? Do you have any outdoor note-taking practices?
Till Monday,
P.S. Paid subscribers, look out for a post on Jane Goodall’s notes later this week!
P.P.S. I just started a thread in case you’d like to share your naturalist notes with us! I, for one, would love to see what you’ve come up with.
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. The Notebooks of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Edited by Kathleen Coburn, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1957, I.1227.
Potter, Journal, May 1890, p. 216.
Really lovely! I love combining diarising with nature - so many different ways to do it!
I love this post! It gave me some ideas for a project I am in the early stages of working on and it also has me thinking about some things I need to look for in the rich archive I have access to help with the project.