Blog

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.