Welcome to the 26th edition of Windows on Wildlife! If you have a recent post about wildlife you would like to share (it can be anything: birds, insects, mammals…) scroll down to the end of the post and add your site. I will compile and post all additions the following week. Please don’t forget to link back here (I’d love it if you’d add the Windows on Wildlife button to your post which you can find on our sidebar) and visit other blogs that have articles to share. Thanks for stopping by!
My Windows on Wildlife post today is only indirectly related to wildlife. While I was out on my mini tracking expedition two weeks ago, I came across this lovely little place in the Hemlock grove, next to a stream that runs through right through the grove. I’ve been wanting to find a good “sit spot” for observing wildlife, and nature writing for over a year, and I believe I’ve finally found it.
If you’re not familiar with the “sit spot” concept (it’s used by many outdoor educators, often with different names), Coyote’s Guide to Connecting With Nature describes it this way:
The idea is simple: guide people to find a special place in nature where they become comfortable with just being there, still and quiet. In this place the lessons of nature will seep in. [The] Sit Spot will become personal because it feels private and intimate; the place where they meet their curiosity; the place where they feel wonder; the place where they get eye-to-eye with a diversity of life-forms and weather patterns; the place where they face their fears – of bugs, of being alone, of the dark – and grow past them; and the place where they meet nature as their home.
Coyote’s Guide is a manual for instructors and mentors, as much as it is a philosophy of being (and teaching) outdoors. As a naturalist, I deeply value the concepts that the Guide puts forth, but I want to also make sure that I’m doing them myself before applying these techniques with students. The Sit Spot is such a strong concept, and I’ve been wanting to make it part of my weekly routine but never really connected with a place until now.
My hope is that I will visit there several times a month and take the opportunity to write (if my fingers are warm enough) about and observe the space and animals around me. I plan on photographing it from a variety of angles and in different seasons – the picture above doesn’t do it much justice.
Do you have a special place in the natural world that you return to regularly? What does it inspire in you?
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This week’s edition of Windows on Wildlife takes us to Ranthambhor National Park in Northern India for the second week in a row (part 2), courtesy of Swapnil at Exploring the World.
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Truth is, I look in my backyard. Going to real nature involves getting in my car, although perhaps if you count the brook down the block, I could walk to the brook. But I like my backyard. Birds show up, and last week, deer came while we were home. We get cat prints and squirrels. At this time of year, there is less there, because the bushes are bare (mostly – we have few evergreens).
I want to do more drawing outside, but now it’s too cold to do much more than camera looking. I plan to draw more flowers.
I think the best thing about a backyard is that it’s right there – you don’t have to go anywhere! Learning from the natural world happens anywhere we’re willing to look and listen – it’s all real nature. 😉 One of the reasons I like the spot I found is that it’s less than a 5 minute walk from my back door. I’m far more likely to go there than down the street to the nature preserve, even though that’s a larger stretch of undeveloped land, and I might see a greater array of wildlife.
Sounds like a great idea! I could sit and listen for the birds or see the deers walk by. Great post, have a happy week!
Thanks Eileen, you too!
What a great concept! I think I need my own sit spot. Yours seems perfect.
Your sit spot doesn’t have to be in the vast wilderness – as I mentioned to Leora, backyards are perfect regardless of their size. There are a few easy things people can do in their yards to attract more wildlife – birds, insects, small mammals, etc. – and make wildlife viewing more fun. I’ll have to do a follow-up article on wildlife-friendly backyards!
Oh I had not heard of this before but it is a great idea.. For now my “sit spot” is in the kitchen looking into the yard and out to the pond. I would love to be outside but too cold and wintry for now… Thank you for the support Cynthia. I appreciate it….Michelle
I was pretty sure that was the case for you, based on your writing! 🙂 I wish I could do more for you from here, but just know you’re in my thoughts and prayers. xxoo