Handbook of Nature Study

Nature Goals 2020

3^rd Quarter Update

To refresh your memory, here’s a list of my nature study goals for the year 2020 along with our efforts towards reaching those goals.

Goal 1- Keep a nature journal. I shared earlier this year how my life has been full of so many unexpected responsibilities and this has impacted my ability to stay current with my nature journaling. But now that things have slowed down just a bit, I’m back on track to “catching up” with a lot of the pages I imagined creating when I was crazy busy with life. I’ve been sharing a few images of my nature journal pages on Instagram, but here are a couple that I hope inspire you in your efforts.

Goal 2 – Add to our backyard habitat. This really has been a focal point of our outdoor life in 2020. I’ve found such comfort in being outside digging in the ground and walking in the garden. We tackled a huge section of lawn and transformed it into a wildflower and sunflower garden that attracted birds, bees, butterflies, and toads over the summer and even now into the autumn. I’ll be sharing the process in future posts.

Here’s a short list of what we did to add to our wildlife garden so far in 2020.

• Replaced grass with natives and wildflowers.
• Planted bushes that have flowers for pollinators and berries for the birds to eat.
• Added two crabapple trees.
• Moved a bird bath where we could keep it full every day.
• Added more nesting boxes – attracting swallows, western bluebirds, chickadees, and wrens.
• Added more large rocks and moved a stump for shelter.

Goal 3 – Take local hikes. Using a local hiking guide, we’ve been on a couple exciting new hikes this summer. I really need to share blog entries for both (add them to my writing schedule). I must admit that at first, we were hesitant to get out and hike during the COVID-19 pandemic. But, once we gave it a try, we realized that we could safely be outdoors and for the most part we observed others being as cautious as we were by wearing masks and staying distanced.

Goal 4 – Make notes in my field guides. I find such joy in recording in my field guides the dates and places I observe subjects. The problem is that I don’t do this consistently, either because I don’t take the time, or I don’t have a pen to mark it down. So, I took a morning and paged through my wildflower field guide and at least made a check mark next to all the wildflowers I can remember seeing in real life. If I remembered where I saw the wildflower, I noted that as well. Now I am keeping a pen inside each of my field guides so there is no excuse for not keeping notes when the time comes.

Goal 5 – Continue to participate in Project Feederwatch and the Great Backyard Bird Count. We participated in the Great Backyard Bird Count back in February and we are eagerly waiting for November 14, 2020 when we start counting feeder birds again as part of Project Feederwatch.

Goal 6 – Visit a new national park. This sadly may be a goal we do not reach this year because of all the COVID-19 restrictions. We had a road trip all planned out for June 2020 to Olympic National Park (in Washington state) but we had to cancel all of those reservations. I’m not going to give up on those plans and since I have all my notes and itinerary still in my planner, I can easily book another trip when we can travel more freely and into Canada. Yes, our trip even included a jaunt up into British Columbia! Another change since making this goal is that we sold our rather large travel trailer. We may need to wait until we find a new smaller trailer that fits our needs as we ease our way into retirement.

All in all, I think we’ve done a pretty good job of working towards and reaching our nature study goals this year. I’ve now made a few notes in my planner to work on fully accomplishing the goals we can achieve by the end of the year.

Did you make goals for 2020? Were you able to reach some of them?

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