Naturalist

Fiona: Naturalist and Nature Journaler

GALLERY OF JOURNAL PAGES
See examples from the more than 2,000 nature journal pages that Fiona has created since she began journaling in 2016. Fiona is also an Artist who especially enjoys drawing birds.

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ABOUT FIONA
Fiona has loved art and nature since she was a little girl. In 2016, on her 13th birthday, she discovered nature journaling through a chance meeting with John Muir Laws, and she was thrilled to find something that combined these two things she adored. Since then, she has been blessed to call John Muir Laws her mentor, sketching buddy, and friend, and Fiona has become a passionate nature journaler, naturalist, and advocate for nature.

Born and raised in the Sierra Foothills near Auburn, California, Fiona spends time daily in the wild lands near her home. She loves to look for mysteries in nature and explore them in the pages of her nature journal. Fiona has attended Waldorf schools since age 3, where she enjoys an education rich in music, storytelling, drama, science, literature, history, and the visual arts. Fiona also loves to create art, draw, paint, craft, act (see her acting resume here), sing, harmonize, play cello, compose music, write stories, and speak German.

BIRDING AND VOLUNTEERING

An avid birder since 2015, Fiona is a six-time recipient of the Central Valley Birding Club Youth Scholarship, enabling her to attend summer birding camps to further develop her skill and passion in birding. She especially enjoys the music of birdsong and she loves to bird by ear. Scholarships have enabled her to attend San Francisco State University Sierra Nevada Field Campus: Bird Identification by Song (adult course), Institute for Bird Populations Advanced Bird Banding Camp at Wolf Ridge (adult class), Camp Chiricahua, Camp Cascades, Hog Island Audubon Camp: Coastal Maine Bird Studies for Teens, and Hog Island Audubon Camp: Arts and Birding (adult class).
Since Fall 2018, Fiona has been a volunteer with Gold Country Avian Studies in Grass Valley, where she has been thrilled to learned how to extract and band birds under the supervision of experienced mentors.
Since 2017, Fiona has volunteered her time as a participant in local Christmas Bird Counts, spending long, full days during her winter school breaks counting birds with a team.
She has also volunteered as a leader and co-leader of bird walks for local groups and charities, including Sacramento Waldorf School, the Sierra Foothills Audubon Society, and a local Girl Scout troupe.
Fiona often speaks to groups as a volunteer about her passion for birding and nature journaling (see Talks and Teaching below).
In February 2019, with the help of some local birding mentors and donors, Fiona installed 22 bluebird boxes in her neighborhood, which is a wildland-urban interface, and she monitors them for the California Bluebird Recovery Program.

PUBLISHED WRITING

In Summer 2021, the Children & Nature Network published Fiona's essay, "Falling in love with nature through journaling," on the Finding Nature News blog. The piece includes several images of Fiona's journal pages. The article was also featured several times on the C&NN social media.
In Summer 2021, the Institute for Bird Populations (a nonprofit dedicated to studying the causes of bird population declines) published Fiona's essay, Learning to Read Wings: My Experience at the Wolf Ridge Bird Bander Training, on its blog, Bird Pop!.
In June 2020, Birding, the American Birding Association's national monthly magazine, published Fiona's 7-page article, “A Birder's Brain on Paper: How keeping a nature journal improves our birding experiences.” The piece included several pages from Fiona's journals. Read a PDF of the article.
In May 2020, Fiona was invited to contribute a blog post to International Nature Journaling Week. Her post, The Joy of Curiosity In My Nature Journal, includes several images of journal pages.

TALKS AND TEACHING

In September 2021, Fiona was a speaker at the annual meeting of the Western Bird Banding Association. In her talk, "Learning to Read Wings: My experience as a volunteer bird bander," Fiona discussed her volunteer banding work with Gold Country Avian Studies, her recent experience attending an Advanced Bird Banding Course, as well as some of journal pages she created in the class.
In June 2021, Fiona was a speaker and teacher for the third annual Wild Wonder Nature Journaling Conference. She developed and co-taught a nature journaling class with John Muir Laws: "How to Science: The Nature Journaler's Guide to Asking Questions and Exploring Answers." As part of the keynote evenings, she also gave a talk: "Mentors, Pencil Miles, and Curiosity: My Nature Journaling Journey."
In May 2021, Fiona taught a bird drawing and journaling class as part of Bird Day Live, an online World Migratory Bird Day event hosted by the Environment for the Americas. World Migratory Bird Day is a global event that celebrates the phenomenon of bird migrations and serves as a call to action to protect the birds we share. Watch Fiona's talk and bird drawing and journaling demo.
In April 2021, Fiona was one of the featured presenters and the first ever youth speaker for the Point Reyes Birding and Nature Festival, hosted by the Environmental Action Committee of West Marin in California. She taught a Bird Journaling class for children as part of their Free Youth and Family Virtual Day, and she gave a talk, "Spark Chickens, Mentors, and Sketching: My Journey as a Birder and Nature Journaler." More information on the festival is here.
In March 2021, Fiona taught bird drawing classes for children as part of the World Migratory Bird Day Spring 2021 Bird Camp, hosted by the Environment for the Americas. World Migratory Bird Day is a global event that celebrates the phenomenon of bird migrations and serves as a call to action to protect the birds we share.
In March 2021, Fiona co-taught a class, "How and Why to Keep a Birder's Journal: Birder's Field Journal Pro Tips," with John Muir Laws, which was held in partnership with Richardson Bay Audubon and livestreamed on Facebook by Audubon California and the National Audubon Society. Check out the class info here, or watch the video.
In January 2021, Fiona gave a talk for the San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory's Birdy Hour series: "Taken Under Their Wings: How Chickens and Supportive Mentors Launched My Passion for Birding and Nature Journaling." Fiona shared how her journey as a birder began as well as stories of key mentors who have had a profound impact on her, including artist, educator, and author John Muir Laws. Watch the video.
In January 2021, Fiona co-taught a nature journaling class with her mentor, John Muir Laws, for the Exploratorium of San Francisco's virtual Member Programs: Nature Journaling: Refrigerator Safari. In this class, Fiona explored a pepper from her garden, sharing how she creates a page, including drawing, painting, and writing observations and questions. Watch the video.
In November 2020, Fiona was a speaker in an online program of the Exploratorium of San Francisco: After Dark Online: Sustenance—Contemplating Creativity. Fiona shared her nature journal practice and how it enables her to explore curiosity. Watch a video of Fiona's segment of the program.
In October 2020, Fiona and John Muir Laws, shared a short conversation about nature journaling, attention, love, and hope (with some sprinkles of humor) as part of the Heyday Harvest, a fundraiser for Heyday Books. Watch the video.
In October 2020, Fiona gave a talk, A Birder's Brain on Paper, as part of a Youth Birder Panel for Bird Day Live. (To go straight to Fiona's segment of the panel, click here.) The Virtual Bird Day Festival, hosted by World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD), a global event that celebrates the phenomenon of bird migrations and serves as a call to action to protect the birds we share.
In October 2020, Fiona co-taught a class with John Muir Laws called Exploring Mysteries in Your Nature Journal, at the 2nd annual Wild Wonder Nature Journaling Conference.
In August 2020, Fiona was a guest in a 3-part workshop for teachers on how to teach nature journaling led by John Muir Laws in collaboration with the Monterey Bay Aquarium. She talked about why she loves journaling, how journaling has helped support the development of her curiosity, and she shared and discussed a recent page from her journal. Watch a video of Fiona's section of the class, which includes an intro by John Muir Laws.
In February 2020, Fiona participated in a presentation with John Muir Laws at the Gateway Science Museum in Chico, CA, called "Thinking Like a Naturalist: Reclaiming the Art of Natural History," an event co-sponsored by California State University Chico, and California Science Project, Inc. Laws invited Fiona to share some of her journal pages and have an on-stage conversation about nature journaling and curiosity. The two also took questions from the audience. Click here to watch the entire evening's program. To jump right to Fiona's segment, click here.
In September 2019, Fiona was one of 18 teachers invited to the first-ever Wild Wonder Nature Journaling Conference in Pacific Grove, CA. This event, attended by 275 students, brought together people who are passionate about nature, art, science, curiosity, and wonder to share ideas, learn from each other, support each other, inspire each other, and have fun together in a nature’s beauty. At this event, Fiona co-taught a class about curiosity in nature journaling with her mentor, John Muir Laws, called Down the Rabbit Hole: Curiosity and Wonder. During the Saturday keynote evening of the conference, Fiona gave a talk, introduced by John Muir Laws, on her nature journal practice, the joy of curiosity, and why we need to ask lots of questions. Click here to watch.
In September 2019, Fiona was thrilled to be the first teenager ever invited to present at the Los Altos High School STEAM Week event, in Los Altos, CA. In its 14th year, the event recruits leaders from local business, industry, and academia to speak with and inspire the students. In advance of the event, the school newspaper, The Talon, ran a brief interview with Fiona. At the event, Fiona offered a classroom presentation, Cultivating Curiosity: How I use my nature journal to explore mysteries, see connections, and build curiosity as a skill.
In April 2019, Fiona was invited to be the keynote speaker at the Wake Up to Nature event for the Environmental Volunteers (EV). This annual breakfast event raises funds for EV to send volunteer docents into San Francisco Bay Area area schools to give thousands of children first-hand experiences in nature, with the goal of nurturing the next generation of nature stewards. Fiona spoke to the 200+ assembled crowd about her own nature-rich childhood, her connection with nature through art and nature journaling, and why it is important for all of us to be connected to nature. Watch a video of Fiona's talk. Read a PDF transcript of her talk.
In October 2018, Fiona was honored to be featured in the Artist Explorer lecture series at The Foster, a museum in Palo Alto. In her talk, Fiona shared about her love of nature journaling and had an on-stage conversation about art, curiosity, flow states, and self critics with her mentor, John Muir Laws. Watch a video of Fiona's talk.
Each November since 2016, Fiona has given a talk at the Central Valley Birding Symposium, an annual gathering of birders from across Northern California. Before the Saturday evening keynote address, Fiona has talked with the 300+ attendees about her experience at birding camps (for which this group has awarded her scholarships), her love of birds, and her nature journaling. Videos available on request.

Fiona is one of several naturalists featured in this book.

PUBLISHED JOURNAL PAGES

In May 2020, Heyday Books published How to Teach Nature Journaling by John Muir Laws and Emilie Lygren. This book features nature journal page contributions by several naturalists including Fiona. Fiona's nature journal pages appear on several pages throughout the book. See a PDF page of her work in the book here.
In October 2019, Fiona participated in a Prescribed Fire Training Exchange (TREX) program (sponsored by the Nature Conservancy and in partnership with the Bureau of Land Management), The Nature Conservancy published an article about the program that included a page from several participant's journals, including Fiona's. Read the article.
In February 2018, Nebraskaland Magazine published a piece, "Discovering the Outdoors Through Nature Journaling," which included quotes from several nature journalers, including Fiona. The piece also includes a photo of Fiona nature journaling, and a nature journal page. Read the article.
In March 2017, FOSS-Connect, the newsletter of the Full Option Science System from UC Berkeley's Lawrence Hall of Science (FOSS) published a piece, "Nature Journaling with Expert John Muir Laws: Not Just for Nature-Loving Teachers!," which included an interview of Fiona and some of her journal pages (from age 13). Read the article.

MEDIA AND INTERVIEWS

In July 2021, Fiona appeared in an episode of the Nature Journal Connection, a free educational video series created by John Muir Laws. In this episode, called "Creative Collaboration," Fiona enjoys a tidepool adventure and shares her journal pages, including a sped-up video of her completing a page.
In December 2020, Fiona was a guest speaker in an online nature journaling class taught by her mentor, John Muir Laws. She shared a few early nature journal pages and a way of documenting color variation that she invented in 2017 and that Laws named "the Fionagraph." Click here to watch.
In November 2020, Fiona was a guest on The Birding Life Youth Podcast, a podcast and website based in South Africa. She spoke with host Chris Flannery about her love of birds, how she uses nature journaling in her birding, her experience as a scholarship recipient in youth birding camps, and some tips for people who want to get started birding.
In October 2020, Fiona was a guest on Bethan Burton's Journaling with Nature podcast. Fiona and Bethan discussed Fiona's childhood, how she met John Muir Laws, her joy in curiosity, and more.
In August 2020, Fiona was a guest on Marley Peifer's Nature Journal Show. She talked about her history with nature journaling and how this practice has helped her find beauty in the ordinary.
In February 2018, Nebraskaland Magazine published a piece, "Discovering the Outdoors Through Nature Journaling," which included quotes from several nature journalers, including Fiona. The piece also includes a photo of Fiona nature journaling, and a nature journal page. Read the article.
In March 2017, FOSS-Connect, the newsletter of the Full Option Science System from UC Berkeley's Lawrence Hall of Science (FOSS) published a piece, "Nature Journaling with Expert John Muir Laws: Not Just for Nature-Loving Teachers!," which included an interview of Fiona and some of her journal pages (from age 13). Read the article.
In 2016, the Sacramento Bee published an article on Fiona and her love of birding.