Growing up, I did not have much experience with natural history at all. I grew up in Noida, India- a small industrial city in the suburbs of New Delhi and the closest things I had to nature were our neighborhood parks and the stray donkeys, cows and dogs that roam our streets. Even then, I had an interest in natural history right from the beginning. I would spend hours at end watching nature documentaries on National Geographic and Animal Planet, especially when I was three or four years old and wasn’t really allowed to go outside and explore. As I grew older, so did my desire to interact with nature. Finally, when I was seven years old, my family took us to Kashmir during the summer. The beauty of the Himalayas, the white glaciers, the meadows that stretched for more kilometers than I could count at the time- all made me realize how much I love the natural world and all that it has to offer. While such trips to places with lots of natural history were short and infrequent, they helped me foster an appreciation and a concern for nature.

Another formative experience (and perhaps the most important one) was my trip to Bandhavgarh National Park in Madhya Pradesh, India with my family. Bandhavgarh is famous for having the largest number of royal Bengal tigers in the country and I was brimming with excitement to see one. We went right after monsoon when the foliage in the forest was thick and the only color you could see was green. Unfortunately, this meant that we could see no tigers since they are so skilled at camouflaging themselves. I did see a variety of other animals- wild boars, barking deer, nilgai. I saw more insects and lizards than I had ever encountered previously. I also saw many birds and the trip led to me developing an interest in them. In fact, Bandhavgarh was where I purchased my first bird guide. But the trip did so much more than just helping me learn about the rich natural history of my country. It helped me learn patience and being observant- skills that are going to be essential in my life and especially as a student of the environmental sciences.

Part of why I took ENVIR 280 was because I wanted to be outdoors and experience Seattle’s natural beauty but another aspect of it was also me wanting to polish those skills and feel that connectedness to nature that I felt during the aforementioned trips. And so far, this class is giving me just that.

Pictured below are the first pages of the field journal I’m maintainng for this class. The site I have been and will be observing this quarter is small area next to Lake Washington in Union Bay Natural Area, Seattle.