We’ve gotten a couple of emails lately from people who use our products as nature journals, keeping track of special outings and recording what’s around them at home.
One reader in southwest Wisconsin uses a daily undated Exacompta Forum journal to track birds and other species. “I had been looking for one with dates but not days to use year after year,” she writes. The undated Forum, “while it wasn’t what I thought I wanted, works perfectly… It’s the right size, it has a lovely feel, and the lines are not too far apart.”
Greg Davis, a Milaca, MN based attorney who switched back to paper planners after a courtroom ban on cell phones, has been using a Habana to keep track of fishing outings. “I have been bitten by the Steelhead fly fishing bug and need to keep track of the outings so I can see what works… temperature, weather, water levels, water conditions, etc.,” Greg writes. (That’s his 26″ Hen in the photo above.)
It helps me see where I went wrong with the birding journal I started last year, then abandoned. I’d been using a day-per-page Notor, but after a while it seemed foolish since we don’t get a lot of variety here in Brooklyn on a daily basis, and the rest of the journal was sort of just going to waste. Still, it *is* nice to keep track of dates as well as species. I suppose it should have been obvious, but I’d never thought about using an undated journal or notebook, and keeping it for years to come!
As many of you know, I often go hiking on summer weekends near the NJ/NY border—lovely perk of having a car… A couple weeks ago, before heading out to Ramapo State Forest, we stopped by the Great Falls in Paterson, NJ. They didn’t disappoint: big cliffs, gushing water, and a footbridge that stretched out across them where you could take it all in.
What may have impressed me the most, however, were the Canada Geese that were standing quite literally at the top of the falls and pecking at the fish that went by. I don’t know how they managed not to get caught by the water’s momentum, but I’ve got the evidence on camera. Unfortunately, in my eagerness to capture the closeup I didn’t pull back to convey how tall the cliffs are and how fast the water’s moving, but there’s a still picture after the jump that should give you an idea. (Or you can check out one of these other videos of Paterson Falls.)
The latest entry to our “Where to Go” contest comes from Julie Bynum, who writes in with an account of her trip to Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, or BWCAW.
Last summer (August) I spent 3 days canoeing and camping in the BWCAW. Now believe me, I am not the outdoorsy type, but the area is absolutely awesome. The trip I took was through the International Wolf Center, which is located in Ely, in partnership with Outward Bound. The people and the area is not to be missed. It is on NatGeo’s list of top 50 places to visit. Here is a link to my photos of this trip and here are two of my favorite photos; and this is me!
I forgot to mention the best part of this trip:
NO CELL PHONES
NO RADIOS
NO MOTORIZED VEHICLES OF ANY KIND
In fact, the only sounds of civilization at all during the trip was the two times that the Park Ranger airplane went over.
Now that my garden’s up and running, I figured it was time to take the next step in domestic outdoor activities. I ordered a birdfeeder from the amusingly named Droll Yankees company website, bought a shepherd’s hook out in New Jersey, and hung everything on a fencepost.
Not so fast, evidently. Here’s how things played out:
Phase one. My first hook wasn’t nearly long enough, and the squirrels had a lovely time hopping over from the fence and eating all the seed. Also, the birds weren’t very interested; they hung out in the tree behind our shed and didn’t approach the feeder.
Phase two. I went back and bought a longer hook and re-hung the whole contraption. A few days later, the birds discovered it. And a couple days after that, the squirrels figured out how to make the longer leap.
Phase three. My birdfeeder came with a small tray on the bottom to catch the seeds the birds spill as they eat (they’re very messy eaters!). It also gave the squirrels a nice place to land as they leapt over from the fence. Once I figured that out, I removed the tray, and the squirrels suddenly became much less adventurous. I can’t describe how satisfying it was to watch them try and fail to make the leap—or better yet, to try to shimmy across the hook and dangle down over the feeder itself, which has a protective dome.
