LEARN ABOUT CREATURES

When my friend Francois asked me if I'd like to help him lead a nature walk as part of a zine festival, I said yes right away. But once I started to think about it, I got nervous.

I used to work at a zoo, so I would lead classes all the time, but I haven't done it in years. Plus, we would be walking around the San Francisco Botanical Gardens, which are filled with thousands of plants that I know nothing about. So I was nervous. I figured the best way to prepare would be to do a trial run and figure out a few things to say.

The week before the walk I went to the garden with a notebook and a camera. I spent a few minutes standing outside the garden, thinking about who might come on this walk. I figured that it would be people who were interested in zines... which probably means that they're open-minded and creative. I guessed that they might be young (or younger than me, at least). What I wasn't sure about was how much they'd already know about nature. Would they be clueless? Would they be Biology majors? There was no way to know until they showed up. So I decided to try a mix of general information with a few interesting facts about things that were currently happening in the garden. That way there would be something for everyone.

I spent a few minutes outside the front gate of the garden. The San Francisco Botanical Gardens are in Golden Gate Park, just off of a few busy streets. So even when you're surrounded by plants, you can still hear cars and buses. I decided to use that to my advantage, and I practiced listening to the street noise, and then selectively blocking it out so that I could focus on birds and other natural sounds. I thought this would be a good activity to do with the group at the beginning of the walk, to get everyone in the mood for paying closer attention to nature. But I would NOT tell people to close their eyes or "get in tune" with the birds. That kind of talk makes me roll my eyes, so I try not to inflict it on anyone else.

I started to hear lots of unfamiliar bird noises, especially this one really high-pitched call that kept repeating. I followed it to the trunk of a tree right next to the road, where I saw a flash of white and brown feathers. There was a family of Brown Creepers on the tree trunk! That was exciting: Brown Creepers are very cute and cool birds that creep up tree trunks looking for bugs, and I hadn't known their sound before. Since they hang out on tree trunks, I would know where to look if I heard the sound during the walk. I took a picture of the tree to remind me about the Creepers.

Heading in to the garden, I noticed lots of hummingbirds whizzing around. Hummingbirds are amazing even if you have seen them a million times, so I knew it would be fun to talk about them on the walk. I found a large patch of flowers where it was possible to get pretty close to the birds. That's the nice thing about urban birds: they are used to being close to people. I made a note to look up some amazing hummingbird facts to share with the group, like how much they eat in a day, and how fast their wings beat.

Next I went to the scent garden. It was possible that we wouldn't see many birds during the walk, and this part of the garden is filled with herbs and other good-smelling plants. Sometimes it also has lots of birds, but even if the birds are absent the plants smell nice. There's also a fountain nearby that birds like to bathe in, so I thought that it would be a good stopping point.

Francois had mentioned that he wanted to include the redwood grove in the walk, so I headed there next. I decided to try and find a new, interesting pathway to get there. Many of the paths in the garden are smooth and paved, but there are also some dirt paths and stairways that the public is allowed to go on. Most people never leave the pavement, though. I found some cool alternate pathways that went through the Cloud Forest section of the garden. I don't know much about the cloud forest, but since it's a type of rainforest, I thought it would be a good complement to the redwood forest. Plus the plants in that section are cool looking!

Finally I found myself in the redwood grove. I heard a Winter Wren, which has an amazing song. I also saw lots of American Robins feeding on bright red elderberries. I wasn't sure if these were the same elderberries used for syrup. I tasted one but it was bitter... when I got home I looked them up online and it turns out they are mildly toxic. Oops! Well, now I have a good story to share on the walk: don't sample things in the garden!

Finally, I made my way back to the main gate, taking pictures and making notes along the way. I felt like I had a lot of research in my future!

When I got home, I e-mailed Francois my notes. He thought I was on the right track, so I started to flesh out some of my ideas. Over the next few days, I spent about six hours (spread over several days) looking up many of the birds I had seen and heard to find out some more details about them. I learned that Brown Creepers nest under loosened pieces of bark, and that Anna's Hummingbirds dive in a circle but Allen's Hummingbirds dive in a J (I can never remember which is which, but now I've written it down, so maybe that will help). I read some information about the redwood grove (which is how I learned that the berry I tasted was toxic). I thought about things that would be good to mention on the walk, like that the garden is free, and open daily, and often has events like classes and birdwalks.

By the end of the week, I was feeling less nervous. I had some general topic to talk about (what happens in the garden, bird sounds, how different birds share habitat, different kinds of bird beaks, and temperate rain forests), as well as some more specific bird facts. Even if I didn't remember to share everything that I learned, hopefully I would have at least one interesting thing to say about the most common birds in the garden.

The morning of the walk, it was cold and gray, and I woke up feeling sick! I still managed to make it to the garden on time. Francois and I sat on a rock outside the gate, wondering if anyone would brave the cold. Amazingly enough, people did!

We had seven lovely people join us on the walk. It was pretty much the crowd I expected, although there were a few pleasant surprises. Four of the participants were young zinesters. One woman came with her mom (who was the one who had noticed the walk and really wanted to come to it). Part way through the walk, two teenage girls also joined us (their older cousin had been on the walk since the beginning). I was excited to have such a wide range of ages. Honestly, it was kind of a dreamy perfect group! It made me glad I had not let feeling sick keep me from leading the walk, not only because I would have missed spending time with such nice people, but also because they would have been disappointed to show up and find out that the walk had been cancelled.

We basically followed the path I had mapped out in my practice walk. Since I wasn't feeling well, I forgot to do the sound-focusing activity... I'll have to save it for next time. Francois shared the useful tip that a good way to find birds is to listen for them, and to watch for movement in the trees. Everyone enjoyed the hummingbirds, and we spent a long time smelling plants in the fragrance garden. We saw a Downy Woodpecker feeding on flowers, which was very cool. I spent a lot of time talking about some of our more common birds, like Robins, since that what we were seeing. We were lucky enough to see AND hear the Winter Wren, which was great, and a few people saw Brown Creepers. I remembered to tell my story about tasting the toxic berry.

Our original plan was to stop in the redwoods and do some journaling, but since it was so cold we asked the group if they'd rather keep moving... they opted to move rather than draw. It was a good reminder of how important it is to remain flexible. If we had insisted on stopping in the soggy grove, people would have been sad (including me!).

Overall, I think it went pretty well. All seven participants said that they enjoyed themselves... and I did, too! It was especially nice leading a walk with Francois: he added many tidbits of useful information at pertinent times, which was great.

Now I'm wondering how and when to lead another walk. I think it might be nice to pick a narrower theme next time, so I can practice figuring out more of what I'm going to say ahead of time.

What kind of a nature walk would you like to go on? Or lead?