Instead of capturing nature on a cellphone camera, many OC residents are opting to pull out their lawn chairs and sketch their surroundings in a notepad.
Every month, programs for nature journaling events are scheduled throughout OC.
Editor’s note: This is an occasional series where Voice of OC works with local community photographers to offer residents a first-hand look at the local sites and scenes of Orange County.
OC Parks hosts the events in open green spaces like Santiago Oaks Regional Park, Ralph B. Clark Regional Park and the Irvine Ranch Open Space, with Mile Square Regional Park being the newest addition.
One event held at the Upper Newport Bay Nature Preserve, a 135-acre open space nestled along a bay, had attendees walk alongside 26-year-old Resource Specialist Emma Arago, who showed them a variety of places to set up and sketch.
The event centered around Raptors, a term used to identify several carnivorous bird species that fly overhead at the Back Bay, but attendees journaled on any and all wildlife they came across.
“It’s making you slow down in our fast paced world. It does take a little bit at least for me, like I need to make myself sit and do this, because it’s so hard not to just reach for a phone,” Arago said.
One event attendee, David Chui found that nature journaling was a great outlet for his daughter’s artistic interests.
“She’s interested in art, and it sounded like a very different way of, you know, getting some inspiration for free form art benefiting the community,” said Chui.
Chui also expressed the value that nature journaling has for the Orange County community.
“It really brings up the appreciation for what can be very close to you. [It’s about] taking a moment out of my busy life, and being able to soak it in, and write down what I’m thinking about at the moment and not worrying about everything else that’s happening during the week.”
Upper Newport Bay, where the nature preserve is located,is home to an abundance of wildlife, housing exotic birds like the Brown Pelican, Belding’s Savannah Sparrow, and the Black Rail alongside a variety of plant species, which allowed for hikers to journal about a wide range of life.
“This event is quite free form in the sense that we allow participants to create whatever calls to them,” said Arago.
The program began in 2019, and since then it’s been offered regularly to locals looking to get into a new outdoor hobby, continuing in 2025.
Orange County is being invited to see its surroundings in a new light, according to Danielle Kennedy, OC Parks Spokeswoman.
“It allows us to pay attention to details that might otherwise be overlooked and meditate on their forms and place within the natural world.”
