What Is Field Notes? Learning to Read the Landscapes of Northwest Ohio
Field Notes is an ongoing Backyard Habitats series exploring the natural areas of Northwest Ohio through observation.
I visit preserves, parks, and other natural spaces throughout the region and slow down long enough to pay attention—to the plants and wildlife, the soil and water, the transitions between habitats, and the relationships that connect them.
Field Notes isn’t meant to be a scientific inventory or simply a list of species found along a trail. It’s about experiencing a landscape and learning to read it along the way. What does the air smell like? What can I hear? What changes beneath my feet as I move from one habitat into another? What catches my attention enough to stop, touch it, photograph it, or wonder why it’s there? The plants, wildlife, soil, water, weather, sounds, smells, and even the feeling of being in a place all become part of the story. Sometimes those observations lead to answers. Just as often, they lead to more questions.
In many ways, that’s how I first experienced nature as a kid. I spent countless hours exploring the creeks and natural spaces around my home—turning over rocks, catching things, fishing, getting muddy, touching plants, listening, and following whatever caught my curiosity. Back then, I wasn’t trying to study an ecosystem or understand why everything was there. I was simply experiencing it. Field Notes is a return to that same kind of curiosity, decades later, with considerably more ecological knowledge behind the observations.
Today, I’m still doing much the same thing, only now I understand considerably more of what I’m seeing. Field Notes is a place to document that experience: to wander, look closer, use all of my senses, ask questions, learn from the landscape, and tell the story of what I find along the way.
Explore Field Notes
Side Cut Metropark – Exploring the Hidden Habitats of Side Cut Metropark Along the Maumee River.
- Habitats Explored: River Gorge • Limestone Riparian Bluff • Floodplain Forest • Upland Hardwood Forest • River Edge Flats • Wet Meadow Patches • Historic Canal Corridor Habitat
Swan Creek Metropark – Exploring Swan Creek: A Landscape Still Being Carved
- Habitats Explored: Floodplain Forest • Oak Woodland • Oak Savanna • Riparian Creek Corridor • Seasonal Wetlands • Successional Thickets • Lowland Oxbow Depressions
Lou Campbell State Nature Preserve – Exploring Lou Campbell State Nature Preserve: Patience Among the Oaks
- Habitats Explored: Oak Savanna • Oak Woodland • Seasonal Wetlands • Sand Dunes • Prairie • Pond
Salamander Flats – Exploring Salamander Flats at Kitty Todd Nature Preserve
- Habitats Explored: Wet Prairie • Dry Sand Prairie • Oak Woodland • Oak Savanna
Kitty Todd Nature Preserve – Exploring the Oak Savanna at Kitty Todd Nature Preserve
- Habitats Explored: Oak Savanna · Dry Sand Prairie/Openings · Oak Woodland
