The Nature of Things Outdoor journal a source of learning and fun for father and dauighter

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One day last summer while walking in the woods, my daughter Tessa and I found ourselves under siege from a swarm of mosquitoes, those tiny, terrible bugs, delighting in making us their lunch.

“This is awful,” I said. “All these mosquitoes are eating me alive.”

“Daddy,” Tessa said. “Not all of the mosquitoes. Only the females bite you.”

“Uh, right,” I said, nodding, trying to appear as knowledgeable as my 8-year-old.

For the past two years, Tessa and I have kept a nature journal together. We head outside, record something interesting that we see – a plant, bird, animal, tree – research it in field guides or on the Internet back at home, write a paragraph or two of summary in our journal and draw some pictures.

Over time, we’ve discussed the difference between evergreen and deciduous trees, why the seasons change, forecasting the weather from cloud formations, how glaciers shaped mountains and valleys. We drew and discussed white pine trees, blue jays, moose, peregrine falcons (our favorite bird in Maine), chipmunks, snakes, woodpeckers, mourning doves, fox, gray squirrels, even dinosaurs (which, to date, we haven’t seen.)

In recent weeks, for example, after two inches of snow had fallen in the Bangor area, we went to the City Forest and found animal tracks in the snow. The tiny tracks looped around in an oval between two mounds of sticks and twigs.

“Why do they go back and forth?” Tessa asked.

Ah, a mystery to be solved. Tessa drew the tracks and mounds. At home, consulting a field guide, we believe we figured it out: the tracks were that of a meadow vole, going back and forth from its home and a cache of food.

“That’s cool,” Tessa said.

As Katie Trembley of the Chewonki Foundation, a nonprofit group in Wiscasset that puts on environmental education programs, said, “Nature activities expose children to a whole new world outside of the technological one that we live in.”

This nature journal started as a way to introduce some variety into the time we spent together. Tessa has always had a devotion to imaginary play featuring fairies and princesses and dragons. Now, I’m a modern dad, a liberated guy, and it’s no great threat to my masculinity to be caught playing with American Girl dolls for hours on end or in games involving magical ponies and fairy princesses, but a male brain can sustain this only so long.

So one wintry afternoon, I suggested that we keep a nature journal together. Sensing that I possibly needed a break from wearing my tiara, she agreed.

Approximately once a week, we head outside with nature journals in hand. The places we go are various: Bangor’s City Forest, Fields Pond, Acadia National Park, Bald Mountain, local parks, even our own backyard. We record almanac information – the sunrise, sunset, length of the day, temperature, weather – and note our observations and draw our pictures.

My drawings, however, aren’t going to rival those of John James Audubon. One winter afternoon last year, Tessa asked, “Daddy, what’s that supposed to be?”

I glanced down at the picture that I’d been working at for some time. It looked like someone spilled hot chocolate on the white paper, or like a brown Rorschach inkblot.

I hesitated a moment before saying, “A moose.”

All of 7 years old at the time, she threw me a compassionate look.

“It’s OK, Daddy, you’re good at other things,” she said, but kept to herself what those things might be.

My artistic skills aside, our nature journal has evolved over time. It started with rudimentary drawings and basic information about animals such as black bears, snowshoe hares and red foxes, but now is more complex, even poetic at times.

On May 29, at Brown Forest off Ohio Street in Bangor, Tessa recorded that “one bird sounded like a flute” and “the tall, tall pine trees seemed to touch the sky.”

It’s this awareness of nature, said Heather Francis, school program coordinator at Tanglewood 4-H Camp and Learning Center in Lincolnville, that helps children and adults develop a strong “sense of place, which lays a foundation for a sustainable future.”

This may be true, but at its most basic level, keeping a nature journal gets Tessa and I outside, which helps sustain us through the long embrace of winter.

As Jane Rosinski, an environmental educator at Fields Pond Audubon Nature Center in Holden, said, nature activities “get kids physically active instead of being cooped up inside. It makes them feel a part of the earth again.”

I asked Tessa recently what she liked about our nature journal. She said, “I like spending time outside, learning about animals, and being with you.”

My thoughts exactly.

Mark Condon can be reached at mcondon40@yahoo.com.

Suggested books

. “Keeping a Nature Journal: Discovering a Whole a New Way of Seeing the World Around You,” by Clare Walker Leslie and Charles E. Roth

. “The Curious Naturalist,” by John Mitchell

. “The Kids’ Wildlife Book,” by Warner Shedd

. “Nature Smart: A Family Guide to Nature,” by Stan Tekiela and Karen Shanberg

. “A Field Guide to Animal Tracks,” by Olaus Murie

. “Keepers of the Earth: Native American Stories and Environmental Activities for Children,” by Michael Caduot

More nature activities

. Scavenger hunt The Maine Chapter of the National Audubon Society’s Jane Rosinski says scavenger hunts can consist of just about anything: Look where animals might live, find something from each of the colors of the rainbow, look for the items that animals might eat such as acorns, seeds, nuts.

. Animal tracks In winter, identifying animal prints in the snow can be a great activity. Tanglewood’s Heather Francis says to try to understand what the animals are doing, how are they moving through the forest or meadow. What’s the story?

. Ice formations Rosinski recommends looking at ice formations near streams and lakes. What do they look like? Teardrops? Bells?

. Play predator and prey One child is the prey and lays down a track with scented water in snow. Another child acting as the predator tries to follow the scent. Francis says that shows how animals need to rely on their sense of smell in the winter.

. Bird watching The Chewonki Foundation’s Katie Trembley says to keep a list of birds you see all year long. This will educate children on the species of birds that live here, and which stay and which migrate.

. Take a walk Francis says that observing how the forest changes in winter can be interesting for children. What happens to deciduous trees? Are they dead? Why do evergreen trees keep their needles? Where do animals live in winter?