Author: Hashi

The last full day of the nature journal retreat was perhaps the most thrilling. Some of us spent about an hour watching a river otter go through a range of behaviours, including swimming, catching a fish and eating it, rolling around on its back on the sand, scratching, clearing its throat (ack! ack!), and pooping. This last one was preceded by a vigorous up-and-down bouncing of its rear end, which was kinda hilarious.

Back at the parking lot, another nature show—a great horned owl posed for us for fifteen minutes before flying off. I was sitting on a nearby slope eating my lunch, and my binoculars were under the tree. Retrieving them would have risked spooking the owl, so I just sketched the gestures I could see with my naked eyes. It really felt special to have this huge nocturnal bird clearly visible in the day time.

In the afternoon we were at yet another scenic location. I goshed my way down to the lagoon, checking out all the pollinators on the poppies. Continuing the insect theme later, I had the chance to draw a robber fly. It was big, maybe 4cm long. Eventually it took off, and as it zoomed past me, it dropped a poop onto my journal, right beside the sketch! What are the chances? Exciting stuff!

Thursday found us at Chimney Rock, where we first observed juvenile harbor seals down by the lifeboat station. They were particularly adorable, with their big black eyes and wiry eyebrows. Then we climbed up to the highest point of the headland, where most folks sketched the view, or the wildflowers, or the seabirds … but I somehow used all of the allotted time drawing a rock.

Back at the ranch, Roseann showed us how to make wild watercolour paint from local dirt, and Jack gave us some instruction on drawing mammals, before we headed out again for sunset at Drake’s Estero, where once again I ignored the big picture and instead focused on the golden dung flies. Another full and happy day!

On Wednesday morning we observed an avian research project in action. The Palomarin scientists and their interns have mist nets set up to capture resident and visiting birds. We watched the process of retrieval, measurement, assessment, and release for several hours, while they answered all our questions. Fascinating.

In the afternoon I was definitely a gosher not a whoosher. In fact, I didn’t even get all the way to Limantour Beach, as the trail there was infinitely interesting. My favourite sights were the banana slug and the (fairly fresh) elk skeleton.

Tidepooling at Agate Beach! I saw a new-to-me (giant!) anemone and the world’s cutest sea urchin shell, only 1cm diameter. Then at Shell Beach Jack gave an impromptu landscape class, starting with suggestions on framing the view. Back at Retreat House, after dinner, he offered up instruction on sketching birds, in anticipation of tomorrow’s field trip.

Re the “Goshers” and “Whooshers” stickers (thanks Kate!) … on these field trips, there is usually a walk of some distance between the parking lot and the “main attraction”. Some people want to quickly move to the end point. They’re the whooshers. Others get distracted by the myriad organisms and phenomena along the way, and move much more slowly, journaling as they go (“Gosh! Look at that!”). They’re the goshers. Sometimes I’m one, sometimes the other. Whooshers wanna Whoosh. Goshers gonna Gosh. Both are fine.

I got back last night from a fabulous week of nature journaling on Pt. Reyes Peninsula, a place I had never been. About 30 of us stayed in the funky old four-storey retreat house of St Columba’s in Inverness, and we had many field trips and exciting nature sightings. I’ll post pages over the coming days.