Choose a “sit spot” near your home and visit there as often as possible- at least 15 minutes per day if you can. If this is your first time starting a sit-spot practice you can read more detailed instructions here or watch this video.

It’s important to practice slow mindful movement as you walk to and from your sit spot. Try to move as slowly and calmly as possible so you don’t scare off all the birds and animals.

Leave your phone and your field guide at home (for now) but bring your binoculars and journal with you. Try to spend the first several minutes after arriving at your spot just being there, settling into stillness, and tuning into all of your senses.

Try to make a habit of visiting your sit spot every day throughout the duration of this course. All the Field Assignments in this course can be done from this spot and the more often you visit the more you’ll start to notice! Also, try to visit your spot at different times of the day. Notice how your spot might feel different first thing in the morning vs in late afternoon, or even after dark.

If you like, you can write a reflection in your journal about how you feel practicing mindful movement and mindful stillness at your sit spot or take notes and make sketches of some of the interesting things you see there.

One day, after arriving and settling in at your sit spot, sketch a simple bird’s-eye-view map of the area around you (50-100ft or so in each direction) in your journal. Draw some of the most prominent features such as large trees, thick brush, any water features (creek, pond etc.), human-made structures such as houses or roads and anything else that stands out. It doesn’t need to be perfectly accurate or beautiful in any way, just pretend you’re a child again and have fun! See an example here.

In addition to your sit spot map, start a bird species list of all birds whom you have seen at your spot. It’s ok if the list is only one or two species at first- a beginner’s mind is a beautiful thing! Keep this list going for the duration of the course and watch it grow as you build your identification skills and grow more confident!

It is fun and helpful to include other basic info on this list as well such as date of first sighting, an estimate of how many individuals you saw, and where exactly you saw them.

Next time you’re at your sit spot, take some time to look more closely around. Then use colored pencils to add the details you notice to the sit spot map you sketched in your journal. Label some of the dominant tree and plant species if you know their names or use general descriptors like “conifer” or “bramble thicket” if you don’t know specific names. Draw topography lines (hills and valleys), note the elevation and orientation (which way is north?), make note of spots where water might run or settle and note places that are dry. Take note of any animal trails, burrows, or scat you might find. Don’t forget to dig your fingers in the dirt and smell the soil. Are there places where the soil is more rocky, or more sandy, or “clay-ey”? Are there places with lots of leaf mulch or places with bare ground or grass?

Again, the point isn’t to make your map beautiful or perfectly accurate, but to have fun and to get even more intimately acquainted with this unique piece of land. See an example of my sit spot map with details here.

In your journal, draw a simplified diagram featuring some of the different habitat features of your sit spot (or download & print a generic template here). Using colored pencils with simple dots and arrows, mark on your diagram the locations and movements of the different birds you see. Focus on just a few of the most common species that are easy to recognize and use a different color pencil for each different species. If you are an absolute beginner don’t worry, just start with the most obvious and distinct birds such as Northern Cardinal, Blue Jay, and American Crow.

Mark a dot for every new location one of your target birds visits. Are they high in the canopy, mid-canopy, or low in the canopy? Are they moving up or down the trunk of a tree? Soaring above in the sky, or flitting from branch to branch? Are they foraging in the leaves or in the grass? Are they hiding in a thicket or pile of sticks and logs? See an example of the completed activity here.

Alternatively, if you happen to be more of a data-nerd, you could make a data-sheet of target bird species and micro-habitat locations then mark each new location your target species visits and/or duration of time each of your target species spends in each micro-habitat. See an example here and download a blank data-sheet template here.

Start a weather journal. Try to do this without using an app but instead carry a small journal or notepad with you. While at your sit spot and at several other times throughout your day take a moment to step outside and really feel and observe the weather around you. What temperature do you think it is? How moist is the air? How strong is the wind and from which direction is it blowing? How much cloud-cover do you see in the sky? What shape are the clouds and which direction are they moving? Try to step outside and jot down an observation at least three or four times per day.

Each time you make a weather observation throughout your day, take a moment to look and listen to what the birds are doing around you and consider the following questions. Are there times of day or weather patterns that make birds more or less active? What time do they start singing and moving around in the morning? What time do they settle down at night? What do you think birds do in a rainstorm? What about in a snowstorm? How do birds survive a cold night? Do you see many birds active in the middle of a hot day?

In your journal, write down your best guesses to these and any other questions that might come up for you about birds and weather.