The Naturalist's Notebook: An Observation Guide and 5-Year Calendar-Journal for Tracking Changes in the Natural World around You

For those of you who find pleasure in observation and journaling, this book is a must. Subtitled “tracking changes in the natural world around you,” it is an informative and beautiful resource for observations and tracking of what is going on in your chosen habitat. And it is an autodidact’s delight, filled with useful and interesting information and crisp line drawings as illustrations. The authors are both academics as well as practitioners in the observation and understanding of the natural world. Their books are many and graced with notable awards. The wonder and curiosity of their studies makes for pleasure in reading. The book is a compilation of readings, drawings, and charts for the naturalist, be she professional, amateur, beginner, or professional. And it is just plain fun. The focus is on being attentive to the rhythms of nature. Attentiveness, or familiarity, is a basic requirement for the naturalist. What is significant in a habitat remains invisible without a genuine, direct, and contemplative connection with nature. And there is so much of note to observe. The authors suggest ways of becoming observant naturalists, experimental ways of learning, and how to truly know your own natural habitat. Where do you feel a sense of place? What do you see, hear, smell, taste, touch? Using these innate senses, we are led to a new appreciation of all that goes on in our own space. Recording these impressions enables development and insight into nature. A five-year calendar-journal is a necessary component to this book. It encourages self-learning. The calendar, with beautiful pen and ink drawings, is divided into sections which, place our observations in the realms of winter, spring, summer, and autumn. Rounding out the materials in this book are sections for your own personal glossary encouraging the use of abbreviations and symbols relevant to you, useful books, metric conversions, and timelines for the species and events you follow. This is a truly wonderful book to read, contemplate, and use for personal growth. Becoming a citizen-scientist as did Thoreau, creates a lasting and important record of nature.

The information regarding how to observe nature and record your observations in a fast well organized way is concise and beautiful. I love Bernd Heinrich's illustrations.

I'm really enjoying this book. it's written in North Eastern USA so a lot of the things discussed are trees, animals, bugs & plants from there... however it's a universal concept and can absolutely be applied anywhere in the world.

Really cool notebook.

Nice book, very nice illustrations. Drawings are really pretty, and good inspirations for your own practice. I didn't realize that there are many blank pages at the end of the book for reader's own drawings/sketches.

This was a gift for my daughter. She just loved the book and thought the pictures were beautiful. She loves the outdoors and hopes to pursue a job in forestry. She plans on saving the journaling portion until she starts working as a way of tracking her experiences. The articles are very informative. The binding is beautiful. This book will truly be a treasure and a keepsake.

We got one as a gift and loved it. We have purchased several as gifts for friends. This is an elegant and well laid out book. It is a real treasure for anyone who watches birds, plants, etc. and wants to keep a record of when and where. Highly recommended!!

I have one of these and also gifted one to my mom - we both really enjoy tracking goings on in our yards/neighborhoods like when plants bloom, interesting weather occurrences, bird/wildlife sightings, etc. Now into my second year of using it, it is very interesting to note differences in dates that seasonal changes occur from year-to-year and to reminisce as I see last year's entries when I go to make one for this year.

Este cuaderno es visualmente hermoso. Las primeras 95 páginas es texto en donde el autor explica lo que es ser naturalista y da ejemplos muy claros de cómo empezar un diario/cuaderno naturalista. Las ilustraciones son hermosas y está lleno de información muy interesante. A partir de la página 95, el formato cambia y hay más de 100 páginas de calendario para 5 años en donde se pueden anotar y dibujar las observaciones diarias. Lamentablemente en mi opinión, estos espacios son muy reducidos y en realidad sólo se puede escribir muy poco y dibujar aún menos. Claro que es útil para observaciones sumamente cortas pero no para los que nos gusta ilustrar mucho o en páginas completas. Aún con esto, lo recomiendo ampliamente pues es una adición muy estética a mi biblioteca particular.

Es ist ein großer Unterschied Natur mit der schnelllebigen Technik der Digitalfotografie abzubilden oder sich auf das Abenteuer der genauen Beobachtung einzulassen und diese Aufzuzeichnen. Dieses Buch bietet Hilfestellung und Inspiration zugleich. Neben für Biologen typischen Zeichnungen finden sich Anleitungen, wie man sich dem Thema annähern kann. Dieses Buch sollte zu Pflichtlektüre eines jeden Biologielehrers werden. Hoffentlich wird diese Buch bald ins Deutsche übersetzt. Alles was mir in den letzten Jahren an sogenannten Naturtagebüchern aus dem Sachkundeunterricht in Sachsen in die Hände gefallen ist, hat den Namen nicht verdient.

Great informative colourful book

The book itself had grease/oil spots on the inside of the front and back cover from some kind of adhesive holding the paper flap. Content of the book is excellent as always. Handling was not good.

Packaging was merely a plastic bag, so the ends of the book picked up some damage during postage.