Project Calm Issue 10

Think of the wonders of nature freely available to us, wherever we are. The spectacle of a sunrise or sunset, the horizon on which to fix our gaze, the dawn chorus of local birds. All play out daily, regardless of whether we’re watching, but if we do make a point of breaking with the usual routine to observe these marvels, how enriching to our spirits! Take time to soak it all up – the sun as it moves across the sky, shadows as they skirt the floor. Get outside and experience your own magic hour. The beauty of it is, it’s all waiting for you.…

1 START A WILD JOURNAL Keeping a nature journal is one of the most rewarding ways you can connect with the wilderness. If you’re not sure how to get started, why not join the San Francisco-based Nature Journal Club on 11 September for their monthly outing? Learn to observe and record nature with illustrations, poetry and prose, surrounded by like-minded nature lovers in beautiful locations. Visit johnmuirlaws.com for more information. If you don’t have a journal club near you, why not start your own and gather together your sketches, scribbles and memories of nature? Hannah at lilyandthistle.com has put together a free online guide to nature journaling and where to begin. 2 WILDLIFE AFTER HOURS Make use of the warm summer nights in the UK by connecting with nature after the sun has…

Early morning in southern England, and the half-light of dawn is creeping over an indigo sky, washing away the stars with the first grey glow of a summer sunrise. Badgers roaming through the forest are making their way back home, and the creatures of daylight are beginning to stir within their dens. This is the twilight zone; there is a stillness in the trees; a pause between one day and the next, the past and the undecided future. All lies quiet, and a softness moves across the earth while the world sleeps. Silence. And then, out of nothing, deep within the mottled canopy of a silver birch, a voice sings out in the darkness. Ripe, velvety notes float through the air and out into the ether; the first symphony of the…

BLACKCAP, UNITED KINGDOM Although mainly a summer visitor to Britain, more and more blackcaps are now choosing to stay for the winter, too. With a smart black (male) or chestnut (female) head, grey plumage, dark beaks and stocky bodies, they are distinctive little warblers with a fluting, buttery song that has earned them the flattering nickname ‘northern nightingale’. Listen out for them in woodlands, parks and gardens where they enjoy scouting for insects and berries in trees, hedgerows and shrubby undergrowth. TAWNY-CROWNED HONEYEATER, AUSTRALIA A bird of the warm coast and dry inland heaths, honeyeaters feed on nectar from a wide range of plants as well as small insects. Their melancholy drip-drop whistle is a calming voice among some of Australia’s louder avian inhabitants, and they are usually found all along the south…

PENCH TIGER RESERVE, INDIA The inspiration for Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, this reserve is a hidden gem nestled in the lower reaches of the Satpura Hills. SIKOSAARI ISLAND, FINLAND Situated just south of Porvoo city, enjoy the reedbeds and birdwatching tower in the northeastern part of the island. RSPB MINSMERE, ENGLAND Listen to booming bitterns, Cetti’s warblers, bearded tits, blackcaps and nightingales in the coastal lagoons and grasslands of Suffolk. CAPE MAY, UNITED STATES A coastal hotspot for migrating songbirds, visit the bird observatory in spring to hear waves upon waves of different species. DAINTREE RAINFOREST, AUSTRALIA Believed to be the world’s oldest rainforest, listen out for southern cassowaries, honeyeaters, fairywrens and mountain thornbills. “A bird does not sing bacause he has an answer. He sings because he has a song.”JOAN WALSH ANGLUND…