I’ve often heard that you never experience the same river twice. The idea is that the stream is always changing. I believe that the same can be said of a trail. Trails themselves, don’t change much. On occasion the path may be blocked or washed out, however, it is generally the same. What does change are the conditions in which you are experiencing the trail.
If you’ve spent much time outside, you’ve probably noticed that the trailside plants change over the course of the year. So, too, do the bird sounds and the insects present. To a lesser degree, mammals get into the action as well. Over the course of the year, the deer you see go from spotted fawns to quite large antlered bucks- not that one individual does this in one season, mind you, but I think you get the drift.
Year in and year out, the seasons bring reliable, predictable change. I suspect you have observed this, but as you begin to really pay attention to it you are engaging in phenology. Phenology is the study of cyclic changes in natural phenomena, especially in relation to climate, plant, and animal life. Simply put, phenology is being engaged in nature enough to know that, your favorite wildflowers will be in bloom soon, or that elk are in the rut, or that streamflows and insect hatches are going to change your fishing experience.
Since spring of 2020, the pandemic has brought millions of people back outdoors. Websites, tourism businesses, environmental and recreational nonprofits, social media platforms, even App creators have noticed this trend and have created an amazing bandwagon.
Social media is not without a deeply disturbing downside, but it has also blossomed with millions of people posting pictures of plants and insects and birds they see but don’t yet know the name. The App creators have seen this vacuum and filled it. Your phone can be used to identify everything from rocks to plants to birds to clouds.
I think this is a good thing- though I am holding off on getting a few of the Apps because I want to remain mindful and not get too caught up in simply listing or collecting.
Mindfulness is a buzzword that has received a lot of media play. Mindfulness is simply being engaged in purpose-driven activities; being engaged in what is going on around you in your current moment; being present in your environment.
My vision for the articles/posts/images that I publish is to explore a slice of life where phenology and mindfulness overlap; to illustrate the area of a Venn diagram of my life that includes the season, the biological community, observing, and reporting.
I have held many jobs in my lifetime, but I have, again and again, really found myself in nature. I enjoy getting out and experiencing the blistering cold and the blistering heat- because I know that neither will last, and I should go out and be in whatever nature throws at us- at least for a bit.
I enjoy watching the species change at the bird-feeder; seeing young foxes cavorting in the springtime; hearing and then straining to see the skeins of Canada and Snow Geese, and Trumpeter and Tundra Swans as they migrate overhead twice every year. I love watching the moon move through its cycles and stations across the sky; seeing the myriad shooting stars that I have the good fortune to see; and watch the re-emergence of plant life from our rocky soil as winter fades into spring.
And the wildflowers. I love the wildflowers.
Phenology- that’s really what drives me to get outside and be in nature. I hope you’ll do the same!
Learn more about phenology on the web at the National Phenology Network or Aldo Leopold Foundation.
In the depths of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.
Albert Camus
