Forget Birds — It's Tree-Watching Season
It's the perfect time of year to make a new friend (spoiler: it’s a tree)
We’ve chatted a lot about birds here at Outdoor Humans. Birds in the sky, birds in the water, birds in the trees, you get it. Birdwatching is widely accessible because there are birds nearly everywhere, however this month I wanted to share a different way to nature watch that’s just as easy to do from your backyard or window: tree-watching. I felt particularly inspired after browsing through Nancy Ross Hugo’s Seeing Trees, a beautifully photographed entreaty to notice the minutiae of trees as they transform throughout the seasons.
Tree-watching is exactly what it sounds like: observing trees year-round, watching as they awaken from winter to bud and bloom in the spring, as their canopies seemingly explode overnight with new foliage, and then drop months later. (Not all trees follow this process, but you get the idea.)
Humans tend to view trees as a resource — after all, they provide us with oxygen, shade, fruit, nuts, and lumber. However, Hugo points out that a little perspective shift can change our relationship with tall timbers:
“The biggest reward of intimate tree-watching is learning to appreciate the vitality of trees. Because trees are big and essentially stationary, there is a tendency to view them almost like monuments — impressive but inanimate. We value trees for their slow inexorable growth, seeing them as symbols of fortitude and patience, but with slow incremental growth being almost impossible to observe, the living essence of trees is a bit hard to appreciate.”
When we view trees as their own living beings that exist alongside us, it’s possible to unlock a different level of enjoyment when we interact with them. They’re growing and moving through their life phases not for us, but because that’s what they’ve evolved to do. When we slow down to their pace for a moment, we might just get to witness all those tiny, miraculous changes.
How to Connect With the Trees Around You
Like most nature-related activities, tree-watching is exactly what you make of it. It’s OK to just peek out at the same tree every day to watch its progress, but you can take this practice a little further:
ID your tree. Most people pass by a countless trees daily, so taking the time to pause and learn your selected tree can help you discover a little more about it. Check out the Arbor Day Foundation’s tree identification tool to get started.
Commit to revisiting a tree several times this year. Perhaps you’ve found an amazing tree in your neighborhood park or while out on a hike. Drop a GPS pin in your phone and come back each season to see how it grows.
Make it an artistic collaboration. Photographing, sketching, or journaling about your nature findings can help you record the changes you see throughout the year. Plus, you’ve got to do something with all those blank notebooks you’ve been saving for the perfect time (IYKYK).
Add an extra set of eyes. Binoculars aren’t just for birdwatching. Use them to glimpse the highest branches of your tree and spot baby buds. My new favorite tool is a pocket microscope, which lets you look at leaves, bark, and other tree features up close.
Build your tree crew. You’re not the only one who visits your tree. Birds and critters of all kinds rely on trees for food and shelter, so pay attention to who else is interacting. You may just develop a fondness for nature’s other guests.
If anything encourages you to commune with a forest of trees, know that the act of hanging out around foliage is scientifically proven to be good for humans. Research shows time spent with trees helps our brains function better, calms stress, and fights depression and anxiety. I hope you’ll head outdoors to explore, or even sit window-side with a warm cup of tea to watch your new tree best friend sway during a spring storm.