An April moment in the Loess Hills. Photo by Robert Smith.

Friends and members of The Naturalist School,

A steep Saunter in our rugged haunts reveals a phenological truth: spring is a rhythm. Surely the moon had her springtime of ripened equinox, but with every moment and step, ponder and breath we find new springs in the rich phenologies and food-webs of our wildest attentions and phantasies. And of course, ecological study.

April musing under oak. Photo by Chelsea Balzer.

We will continue to hike and dance, step to April’s rhythms always new in Fremont and Harrison Counties in Iowa and Lancaster and County in Nebraska with biotic surveys, workshops, Saunters, and Poetics of Place gatherings through April. Contact me at thenaturalistschool@gmail.com if you’d like to join us or learn more about TNS.

Wear good boots,

Jack Phillips

Finding a Muse in Oak: poetry as path into nature. Sunday morning April 14th, Lancaster County, Nebraska.

Spring Woodland and Savanna Surveys throughout April in Harrison County, Iowa.

Oaks of the Southern Loess Hills: Food-webs and Phenologies. Saturday morning, April 20th Fremont County, Iowa. Afternoon session: Spring Frogs by Ear.

Urban Woodland Saunter. Sunday morning, April 28th in Lincoln, Nebraska.

For more details and to register, contact Jack Phillips at thenaturalistschool@gmail.com

Frog-song interrupted. Photo by Troy Soderberg.