The Backyard Bird Chronicles

A century before naturalist Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species (1859), Gilbert White—a curate and hobby ecologist—carefully detailed his observations in his diary. In The Natural History of Selborne (1789), White recorded observations from his walks and noted anything that struck him as a pattern or a break in it. After watching two white owls for several seasons, he became attuned to their rhythms and knew when they were taking care of young and the intentions behind their hisses and squawks. His writing had a meaningful impact on a young Darwin. White is considered one of the first nature diarists, focusing his attention on living specimens rather than the traditional dead animal models. He spent 40 years chronicling his observations and developing a strong sense that animals have rich inner lives. His writing blended personal memoir with scientific recording, a hallmark of nature journaling.

Darwin’s nature journals were an important part of his scientific work. In his notes, he recorded observations and made sketches that he could look at later as points of data. Similarly, Henry David Thoreau, author of Walden (1854), began documenting his nature observations just after graduating from Harvard and continued the practice for over 20 years.