Phenology: Your Personal Connection to Nature

Phenology is the study of recurring natural phenomena and seasonal trends. (eg. bird migration, first blooms) When we record these seasonal events in a journal or notebook it can help us to connect to our land and bioregions. It also helps us to understand how seemingly simple occurrences can affect natures patterns and cycles.

Why it Matters:

Keeping a record of these patterns and sightings helps us to slow down, focus on and connect deeply with our natural surroundings. It can strengthen our connection to the present. It can help plan, plant and know when to harvest gardens as well as see how things might change year to year improving yields. By recording what we see, touch, hear, smell or taste in nature throughout the seasons, it creates a revovling relationship with the earth that grounds and connects us.

What to Record:

Keep it simple or let your creativity flow with detailed colours and doodles. Record things like:

• Date, time, weather, temperature
• First insects noticed
• First buds and boooms
• Birds - migration, nesting, eating habits
• Severe weather
• Rain & snow fall
• Appearance of fungi, caterpillars, moths etc
• Seeding, transplanting and harvest dates
• Moon and star patterns
• Photographs

Add anything you'd like to keep track of year after year, season after season.

By recording these things we are actively participating in nature in a way that is accessible to everyone. We are creating connections with nature and becoming gentle stewards of the land.

On a broader level the study of phenology through citizen science (any scientific research conducted by non-professional members of the public) is incredibly important as it can provide essential data for understanding and adapting to, the ecological and societal consequences of a changing climate. *You can join groups and submit your sightings in collaboration with or under the direction of professional scientists and scientific institutions.

It might feel like writing in a journal is miniscule but the less time we spend connected to the earth the more we drift away and sink into concrete AI jungles, loosing the empathy and caring nature that makes human, humans.

So grab a journal, a calendar or a plain old notebook and start recording what you see right outside your window. You'll be amazed how much more you start to notice in the natural world once you actually slow down and look.

This is how we help to change the future, simple steps right outside our door. Restoring lost connections to the natural world, one small act at a time.

Have you noticed anything wild this season? Like an increase of dragonflies or decrease in ladybugs?? Let me know in the comments.

~ K