Join Rogers Environmental Educator Ellen Rathbone for a creative nature journaling hike at Second Sunday Scribblers, held at 1 p.m. on every second Sunday of the month. (Photo by Sarah Genter)

SHERBURNE — Friends of Rogers offers many opportunities for area residents to get outside and learn about nature, one of which is the monthly Second Sunday Scribblers nature journaling program at the Rogers Environmental Education Center, located at 2721 State Route 80 in Sherburne.

Held every second Sunday of the month at 1 p.m., nature enthusiasts and artists alike can join Rogers Environmental Educator Ellen Rathbone on a hike to explore nature and document their findings.

Nature journaling is a form of "phenology," or tracking seasonal environmental patterns and behaviors, which allows scientists and environmentalists to observe how nature is changing over time.

"So phenology, the reader’s digest version, is basically the study of seasonal changes. So people go out and they record when they saw their first mourning cloak butterfly, when the spring beauty first opened, when the buds are swelling on the maple trees, and they keep track of these," explained Rathbone. "This is how we know over time that things are happening much earlier than they did historically because of climate change. So that’s what phenology is, it’s tracking the seasonal changes of the natural world."

A nature journal is a combination of phenology, art, and science. They are an individual's written account of the natural shifts around them. Nature journals can include written notes, drawn or painted images, plant matter collected, details on date, location, time, and weather, and much more.