Nature journal — field studies

Before the block is cut, it's a few lines in a notebook.

Pages from the nature journal Galen carries everywhere — West Seattle backyard birds, Idaho sunfish, a peregrine watch in Glasgow, a week in Hawai'i that included an erupting volcano. ID notes, field marks. Most pages stay exactly what they are; every so often, one becomes a print.

Journal page with two ink-and-watercolor sketches of Atlantic puffins on the Isle of Mull: one head-tilt display near a nesting burrow, and two puffins bill-tapping in a behavior called billing

May 29, 2025 · 3:17 PM

Billing, beak to beak

Isle of Mull, Scotland

Watched a pair near a nesting burrow tap bills rapidly for a second or two, one bird starting it and the other reciprocating — "billing," apparently mostly a mated-pair behavior. Also caught the quick head-flick-and-grunt a male gives a potential mate.

Became "Puffin in a Tie" →
Journal page with a watercolor sketch of the University of Glasgow bell tower, a peregrine falcon chick, and notes from a peregrine watch including chick names Jack and Victor and nest details

May 31, 2025 · 10–12 PM

Peregrine watch at the bell tower

University of Glasgow

Two five-week-old chicks, Jack and Victor, beginning to wing-flap ahead of fledging. Met project lead John Simpson from the watch, a joint effort with the Scottish Ornithologists' Club and RSPB — parents named Bonnie and Clyde hunt starlings from a nest 85m up.

Journal page with watercolor sketches of a pumpkinseed sunfish and a bluegill, with identification notes, weather, and size records for both species

July 15–17, 2025

Sunfish, two ways

Idaho

Pumpkinseed sunfish first, ID'd by the bright red spot on the ear flap — then a bluegill two days later, thought bubble included ("I can swim backwards").

Journal page with a watercolor and ink sketch of a honu, a Hawaiian green sea turtle, resting on lava rocks, with a national park stamp and tide and moon phase notes

January 22, 2026 · 1:00 PM

Two honu napping, a third joins them

Kaloko-Honokōhau, Hawai'i

Waxing crescent moon, surf barely a foot. A strand of Pele's hair — volcanic glass spun into threads by the wind — landed right in the sketchbook while I was drawing, which felt like it deserved its own margin note.

Journal page with a watercolor sketch of the Halemaʻumaʻu eruption at Kīlauea, showing lava fountains and steam plumes, with a national park entry stamp and field notes on vent heights and evacuation

January 24, 2026 · 10:57 AM

Episode 41, Halema'uma'u erupting

Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park

Arrived after a ranger talk with the vent still close to the ground; by 12:01 PM tephra was landing near our observation spot and rangers moved everyone indoors. Both vents topped 500m by 12:10 — found a 3-by-2-inch chunk of it later in the parking lot.

Journal page with watercolor sketches of three Hawaiian forest birds: an ʻelepaio flycatcher, a nēnē goose, and an ʻiʻiwi honeycreeper, with names in Hawaiian and short field notes

January 26, 2026

Three endemics in one morning

Hakalau Forest Refuge, Hawai'i

A bold, curious 'elepaio flycatcher, a nēnē — the world's rarest goose — grazing nearby, and an 'i'iwi honeycreeper working an 'ōhi'a tree, one of its few native pollinators left. Hard to overstate how good a refuge morning like this feels.

Journal page with a watercolor sketch of a coqui frog, a cartoon frog singing, and a hand-drawn map of the Hawaiian islands with hotspot geology notes

January 2026

The loudest frog on the island

Hawai'i Island

Coquis put out a 90–100 decibel mating call and aren't even native — introduced from Puerto Rico around 1988. Got sidetracked into the hotspot geology after: the islands drift about 3 inches a year, which works out to 32 miles every million years.

Journal page with watercolor sketches of a Hawaiʻi ʻākepa bird, a pua kala Hawaiian poppy, a Gulf fritillary butterfly, and an unfurling fern frond, each labeled with location and date

January 22 – February 1, 2026

Pua kala, and the week around it

Kaloko-Honokōhau & Hōnaunau, Hawai'i

A scarlet 'ākepa at Hakalau, a Gulf fritillary at Hōnaunau, an unfurling fern on the Kīlauea Iki hike — and this pale, papery pua kala, the Hawaiian poppy, sketched at Kaloko-Honokōhau. That one didn't stay a sketch for long.

Became "Pua Kala" →

More pages get added as the notebook fills — this is a working record, not a finished set.