Nature’s Notebook

Connecting People with Nature to Benefit Our Changing Planet

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Nature's Notebook...

Nature's Notebook...

Nature's Notebook is a national, online program where amateur and professional naturalists regularly record observations of plants and animals to generate long-term data sets used for scientific discovery and decision-making.

Have Fun Outdoors

Have Fun Outdoors

Being an observer has connected me even more deeply with life in my neighborhood, and with the lives of individual species that I observe.  

– Cathie Bird, Nature's Notebook observer

Contribute to Scientific Discovery

Contribute to Scientific Discovery

Nature's Notebook gives the large Audubon CA volunteer community a chance to contribute to research above and beyond just listing bird species.

- Sandy DeSimone, Director, Starr Ranch Sanctuary—Audubon California

 

Status of Spring

Status of Spring

Spring leaf-out has arrived in all but highest-elevation areas of the Continental US and has started to arrive in Alaska. Spring was 1-3 weeks late in the SE, northern Great Plains, MW, and NE and 1-3 weeks early across the central Great Plains, Ohio Valley and mid-Atlantic. The west is a patchwork of early and late arrival. 

See the maps

Celebrating 10 Years of Nature’s Notebook

USA-NPN staffThis month we highlight the staff of the National Coordinating Office of the USA-NPN. Since the USA-NPN was established ten years ago, the NCO staff have worked to create phenology monitoring protocols, the Nature's Notebook phenology observation program, summarized data and data products, and a community for learning and sharing about phenology. The 12 current staff, most of whom have been with the NCO since the beginning of the USA-NPN, work closely with hundreds of partners and thousands of observers across the country to achieve the goals of collecting and sharing phenology data and information.

Learn more »

How your data are being used

Observing nature is fun. But it also serves a greater purpose. Your observations of plants or animals inform scientific discovery and decision-making:

How Your Data are Being Used

  • Scientists use your data in groundbreaking research.
  • Land managers use them to make better-informed decisions about natural resources in their care.
  • Decision-makers use them to determine policy.

Read about examples »