Ep. 197 : Sit Spots

It’s easy, pretty accessible and turns out to be a lot of fun and often full of learning. A sit spot, or magic spot, or secret spot or whatever else you might call it is simple. Just go find your sit spot, close to home, accessible and easy and then sit there, quietly.

That’s it. The act, or lack of acting really, really pays off. I have a ton of stories of exciting encounters with the world beyond the human. Perhaps it was noticing the infinite detail in Goldenrod (Solidago spp.) flowers, or the diversity of life found within 30cm square of ground just in front of me, or maybe it was a small herd of White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginiana) in a local urban park. It is because of the practice of going to a Sit Spot that I have been able to observe so much, learn so much and become acquainted with the land around me.

Nature is everywhere, and we can notice it in all sorts of ways. Be it our balcony, backyard or a bench at the park. Find a spot you can go to reliably and find a nice place to sit. Bring something to sit on if need be (a piece of an old blue foam bed roll is great), but you can use anything. Most people report that it takes about 30 minutes for things to get back to “baseline”, meaning half an hour for the birds to sing as they would if we weren’t there. This gets shorter as we spend more and more time at our sit spots as the birds and wildlife come to know and expect us. As baseline comes sooner, and the animals return to routine behaviour patterns, then we tend to see and experience more.

Doesn’t really matter where you are even. Friends have done sit spots from their kitchen windows, from their prison cells, from balconies 9 stories up. It is an extremely valuable practice that I would wholly endorse to anyone seeking to learn more about the land.

To learn more :
Naturalist Habits Tier List Video (as mentioned in the podcast)
“Prison Connections” episode