july 2020

In July I deleted Instagram from my phone after reading artist Julia Bausenhardt’s two-part post on her experience quitting social media. As for field sketching/nature journaling, I only did two pages in my “good” sketchbook and did a bunch of mixed media, including pen and colored pencil, in the cheaper sketchbook. I’m treating my nature journaling as play and exploration and giving myself permission to bounce from one sketchbook to another. I started archiving my nature journals online so that I can still have a chronological record even though I’m not working in only one or even only two sketchbooks. At the moment, I’m happy to follow my curiosity, rather than arbitrarily restrict myself to any format or subject matter, as I was doing last summer, and drawing in whatever media and style I feel like at the moment. I embraced the ballpoint pen this month; I did not touch my watercolors.

I’ve also been learning the basics of digital illustration, particularly how to use Adobe Illustrator, and I know that the ideas generated by that have some influence on my sketching in the field.

I did get to a lot of great natural areas, including the spectacular Somme Prairie Grove and Middlefork Savanna. I immersed myself in these precious high-quality habitats that allow one to get a sense of what the area’s natural landscape looked like before the arrival of Euro-American settlers.

june 2020

Chicago was under curfew for several days at the beginning of the month as part of the mayor’s sweeping measures to quell protests and unrest following the murder of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis on 25 May. I joined multiple demonstrations in Chicago and pledge to remain actively engaged in the struggle for civilian control over police and other campaigns to make this city a more equitable and safe place for all.

Chicago meanwhile moved into a less restrictive phase of COVID-19 measures during June. The Chicago Botanic Garden reopened and I made it to Montrose Point, which had been off-limits after the mayor closed the lakefront trail and beaches in late March. Volunteer stewardship work in the forest preserves resumed at a limited capacity as well.

may 2020

I took my first longer-distance field trip since the stay-at-home order was declared in March, biking up to Watersmeet Woods in Northbrook where I had the whole forest preserve to myself. I birded and poked around looking at plants but also spent time just sitting and taking it all in. I remember the intensity of a particular red-winged blackbird’s song and related to its strong desire to connect with another member of its species.

I also began regular visits to riverside sites in the city where native plant restorations are underway. I had quite the day at LaBagh Woods on the North Branch on May 15. It seemed like every tree was loaded with warblers — I’ve never had a day of birding like it.

I continued on with pen and watercolor as my journaling media of choice.

april 2020

I got back to the North Branch forest preserves after a long absence and continued to visit Loyola campus and the North Channel patch in Lincolnwood. I was glad to not miss out on spring ephemerals entirely.

Bird migration picks up during April, but unfortunately, the buildings at Loyola’s lakefront campus cut their long journeys short. When I find a window strike victim, I like to honor the bird’s life by drawing it in my sketchbook, like the white-throated sparrow included here. I mainly worked with pen and watercolor during the month in the “good” sketchbook and experimented with overlapping drawings done with different colored pens.

march 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic became humanity’s new reality during the month and, without a car and public transportation limited to essential trips only, my range of travel became quite limited. I took early morning walks to Loyola University campus and observed the birds that visited my third-floor porch.

I also started birding along a patch of the North Channel in Lincolnwood that needs some TLC but where there is great potential for ecological restoration. Though it’s outside of Chicago, that patch is only a 20-minute bike ride from where I live. I saw a live woodcock for the first time there, to my great thrill, and lots of mergansers as well.

I journaled primarily in the “good” sketchbook during the month using pen and watercolor and found myself drawing on top of my writing.