The Notebook Challenge.

 Happy New Year all. I have been watching with interest that a lot of birders are entering the Patchwork Challenge for 2023 after its revival. Back in November I was going to give it a go too but after more thought I decided against it. I'm not really a competitive person so it seemed a bit too much hassle to keep adding up various points for particular species, self finds, scarce, rare etc, so once again I will be keeping my own 3km local patch list going in a casual manner, just like last year. 

This is my 15th year on this patch, so I have a good idea of what, where and when to expect things now. Lets hope there are some surprises yet to meet me on my travels.

Instead of being wholly list focussed, the good people on Twitter have given me an idea on something I can try to improve on over the year. My Notebooks.

As a keen Notebook user, this is no biggie, but we can all have some self improvement.

Between Christmas and New Year I was tagged in to a tweet from Amy Schwartz that set me thinking. She was going to begin using a Notebook in 2023 after a couple of false starts. In echo to this I tweeted- 

The response to this was excellent. There were over 71k 'impressions', what ever that means and over 700 people 'liked' the post. That in itself isn't important, but I'd like to assume its not the post they like but the sentiment behind it, ie, keeping a Notebook. This started off a thread of comments and posts from others about the topic of Note taking. Some top birders took the time to reply, posting pictures of shelves full of their own written word. 

It is from these I am taking some ideas on how to improve.

Here are a few - 

Look at those fab shelves! I must get mine into some order like this.

Phil is a well known brilliant bird artist. What a resource here.

Paul says his books arent really sketchbooks. Could have fooled me! These are fantastic too.

Great point made by Andy here. No one has a memory so good that they can remember details from a life of Notetaking.

Another very valid point, you cant always get a photo of every bird ( though some do very well). Its worth getting it into the notebook straight away.

James is another author and artist . His Tweet says it in a nutshell.

Well known artist Richard gives great tips here.

Craig is a great birder who is now back on track with his Notes

I'd love to get stuck into these and the others books! Mick has a great method here. 

 

Amy's tweet that started it off...

But I think it is Jonnie who has given a different outlook on Amy's tweet.

Jonnie's books are full of not just lists of birds but humour, interest, tales and the stuff that makes our birding and wildlife trips so enjoyable. These are done now, in the present, for himself in the future. Is there anything better than that!

Some birders have either given up notetaking or have never started. The alternative seems to be Birdtrack, eBird, Spreadsheets, Databases, Phone notes and Photography. 

My take on it is that we Naturalists are entering a world of different species to ourselves. There is so much beauty and bizarre interest here that one lifetime can't take it all in. In writing and sketching we are reinforcing what we have just seen or done. It is a great learning tool as well as memory storage.

To end, I want to thank all of the inspiring people above whose tweets I've stolen without permission ( I will edit and remove any if I've over stepped the mark!). 

Hopefully you might be as inspired as I am to either improve or to get started in 2023. 

Good Luck! There might be a future post on here with some thoughts and tips for beginners to note taking.

Cheers Stewart  

Notebook...

 What to record in your notebook. Not that anyone uses one these days but here is my scrawl...

I could do this more often, its quicker than writing a post? Blog post in photo form.... The narrative is lacking somewhat...

'Our' Barn Owls are still showing though a little less regularly. Last night at 10pm I took Peggy for her stroll and was pleased to see the male owl coming towards us, my notebook page tells that tale, if you can read the writing...

When ever I start a new book I feel a bit anxious. I couldn't say why really its not as if anyone can see it, unless I post it of course, but the feeling is there. Once started, I just rattle away and it all works out. The books are the small A6 'Moderno' soft back books from WHSmith. I like the ivory tone and fine ruling so much I bought a dozen online for a reduced price. They are quite tactile being soft and smooth in the hand. The paper, though thin, seems to hold up ok to my small watercolours as long as I don't flood the page.  One book usually lasts around 12 months, but since lockdown my most recent only did 8 months due to scribbling observations on a daily basis while working from home.

Back in the day, I used to write everything up into either a big book or a loose leaf file, but now I don't bother, I just keep it in the original form and hope for the best.

The Notebook habit of naturalists is now all but extinct, largely due to accessible technological advances, but I have an affinity with the older ways so my notes will continue until such a time they are all flung into a skip somewhere.