It was full nighttime darkness when I began the drive. My headlights carved cones of light into the night and I had to blink in the glare of approaching headlights. Then, suddenly, surprisingly, as I crested a steep hill I spotted the first faint layer of daylight lifting above the eastern horizon. Glancing at the dashboard clock I was relieved to see that there was still more than 40 minutes until sunrise. I would have enough time to arrive at…
I planned to go to a different spot. Perhaps out past Horse Island to the remote tip of Bird Shoal where I might gain a new perspective on nature in the Rachel Carson Reserve near Beaufort, NC. My two previous sit spots at the Reserve had been conducted from the observation deck on Carrot Island. Both had been beautiful, instructive, and remained vividly etched in my memory. I had learned much about the salt marshes and tidal flats. Now, I…
It was another early wakeup and another predawn drive to the west entrance of Yosemite National Park. I was on a mission to maximize my two day visit to the park. Fortunately, there was no line at the gate and after showing my National Park Pass, I was waved through. I started my hour long drive down narrow roads, around sharp curves, and up and down steep mountains. Passing by a number of scenic outlooks I saw people sitting patiently…
Much felt familiar as I began my hour long sit spot on the terrace adjacent to the 17th century stone farmhouse, Podere di Santa Maria, the Farm of Saint Mary. To the east the familiar faint first light of day lifted above the forested hills of Tuscany. The air was filled with a typical pre-dawn freshness. I heard customary morning sounds—a rooster crowing, a dog barking, and around me the steady drone-chirp of crickets. I sensed differences as well—a faint…
The Aldo Leopold Bench At 3:30 a.m., with such dignity as I can muster of a July morning, I step from my cabin door, bearing in either hand my emblems of sovereignty, a coffee pot and a notebook. I seat myself on a bench facing the white wake of the morning star. I set the pot of coffee beside me. I extract a cup from my shirt front, hoping none will notice its informal mode of transport. I…
Down three flights of stairs, a quick sixty-eight steps across the yard, and I arrived at the edge of the vacant lot. Often while on vacation at my timeshare I had walked by this lot usually eager to get to the beach and had paid scant attention to what by all appearances was simply an overgrown and neglected patch of property. Then two days ago on my way to a beach walk I heard faint seet-seet-seet calls, turned and spotted…
The question in my mind as I walked up the side of the elevated sand mound was clear. Could I experience a deep nature connection conducting an hour long sit spot right in my back yard? I thought the answer was yes, given that nature was most likely just as rich and complex in my backyard as in some remote and wild park or forest. It was an important question for me. I hoped to demonstrate that the sit spot…
For the majority of enthusiasts, however, birdwatching simply provides a personal and very special entrée into the natural world. Graeme Gibson Day 1 Faint first light, swirls of yellow and orange edging above the southern horizon, the excitement of an early morning winter sit spot— this all felt familiar. The difference was I didn’t have to layer up, drive on icy roads, and trudge through deep snow to get to my destination. Instead, I was seated in…
It was that morning in October, the one after a night of heavy rain and strong wind that knocked down the leaves and now the bare branches looked more like November and it was no longer possible to think that somehow the warm days of October might go on forever. As I walked across my yard in the dim, gray, pre-dawn light I saw the gray-black, skeletal silhouettes of ash and maple trees, silent forest sentinels that would have to…
I couldn’t pinpoint the moment when I descended into a state of melancholy, a state where I felt discouraged, tired, hopeless, annoyed, even sad. As usual it was some litany of little things that added up; a misunderstanding with a friend, no clear way forward on a task that needed to be done, an appliance breaking down, persistent bad weather, an aching knee. And maybe there were bigger things lurking in the background; a worrisome health problem, a family member…