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When planning their upcoming semester of activities, the officers of Knighthawk ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ - the campus chapter located at the University of Central Florida - threw around different ideas. Birding, of course; walks in nature; but what about folks looking for a gentler introduction to birding?

Two of  their officers - Vice President Si Zhang (a Conservation Leadership Initiative alum) and Treasurer Hannah Hokenson - attended the ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ Florida Assembly in October and enjoyed the nature journaling session there. Why not take it back to the University of Central Florida?

"Over the years I've been surrounded by birders," Knighthawk ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ President Tara Haubrich (and another Conservation Leadership Initiative alum!) explained. "I've also found that most of us love drawing, and especially love drawing birds, so we thought it would be an enjoyable social event for our club to hold."

The Knighthawks held their nature journaling event in February, prompting the largest general body meeting turnout since Haubrich has been the president of the Knighthawks. "We provided journals, pencils, and snacks and repeated the same three nature journaling activities (speed drawing, blind contour drawing, and approaching the outdoors with curiosity and wonder) that Assembly taught us," she continued. "It particularly surprised me that the event allowed a lot of our members to open up and chat with us and each other, usually our meetings can be on the quiet side, but this event really let everyone come out of their shells."

The Knighthawks wanted their members to walk away from the event with a new and more approachable way to engage with nature and birds. "Traditional birding focuses on quick identification skills that can be intimidating to beginner birders, so we wanted to introduce a fun, lower pressure practice that still encouraged observation and connection to nature," Haubrich added. "We hope that our members left knowing that birding can be a creative process that is accessible at any skill level, and that there are many ways to be apart of the birding community!"