December Nature Journal Pages

Browse through my December nature journal pages with me - winter days in East Yorkshire - get inspired for ideas for your own nature journaling...

I try to find something in nature to journal about most days if I can, and just make a quick sketch and a few notes about it. I practice 'imperfect nature journaling' which means I focus my mind on journaling for fun to feel more connected to nature so that I feel more relaxed and happy - and don't get caught up in trying to make perfect pictures (which usually spoils the fun of drawing!)...

Watch a flick-through of my nature journal pages for December just above - click play to start!

More info and a closer look at all the pages below...

December Nature Journal Pages

Explore my December nature journal pages with me...

Sweet chestnut leaf

This leaf was a HUGE Sweet Chestnut leaf which I found in the Peak District while we were on a weekend away. I didn't recognise the leaf type and so picked it up so that I could draw it and find out what it was. I'm pretty sure it's a Sweet Chestnut leaf. I think not all Sweet Chestnut leaves are as big as this - the trees were very tall - so I will keep a look out for smaller examples, now I know the shape of the leaf.

Little fluffy pinecone

I also found this very sweet, small 'fluffy' pinecone while we were away - it's different from the ones I've found near home. I think this is a Spruce pinecone.

Ornamental pineapple

This is a really amazing little ornamental pineapple off a house plant I bought earlier in the year. The little pineapple fruit was green and hard when I got it in May. It's gradually ripened to golden brown and now the stem has wilted so I know it's 'done' and decided to cut it off and draw it. It's soft and going slightly squishy now!

Little egret

This is a beautiful Little Egret which I spotted from the car. It was just near a ditch in an open field. I've seen Little Egrets before, near to home, similarly near ditches, but only in the last couple of years. I think they are expanding their territory further north in recent years.

Tree of apples

From the car, I also spotted this awesome little tree of apples (aka apple tree). At first, I thought it was a tree decorated with Christmas baubles, but when we came closer, I realised it was a tree full of gorgeous red and yellow apples, hanging from leafless branches. I was surprised the apples hadn't fallen yet. It was quite a sight to see and I'll be looking out for more apple trees looking like this, to see if it is actually more common than I realised.

It made me wonder if trees like this were the origin of Christmas tree baubles..?

Hawthorn leaves

I collected these tiny hawthorn leaves in my nature journal book as they caught my eye as they stood out, bright yellow and red leaves again on branches without leaves. Sadly, the colours have faded since I stuck them in my nature journal, so I do quite wish I'd drawn them, instead. They seemed to be the only leaves that were still bright and colourful on the trees.

Birch twig with tiny catkins

I noticed the birch trees nearby already have tiny catkins on. I thought these might be early due to a relatively warm autumn/winter but on researching the tree, I discovered that these are the small male catkins which grow through winter and ripen in Spring as the longer catkins. The birch tree also has smaller female catkins which grow in Spring.

Blackbird on a gatepost at dawn

My morning walks are now often in the darkness of dawn/pre-dawn this close to the end of the year. One morning, we saw a round, fluffy blackbird on the gatepost in front of us, really close. I wondered if it was actually one of the blackbirds from our garden as it didn't seem worried about us. Or maybe he's seen us plodding along with our dog many times before and knows we're not a threat..? Fun to see, anyhow!

Orange berries (Stinking iris)

When I do get to go out in daylight, I can get to spot things like these amazing little orange berries. I took a photo to draw from, and I wasn't sure that they were but they did remind me of iris seedpods in my pond, although the berries aren't the same. After some research, I think they are a type of iris - the Stinking Iris (Iris foetidissima). I didn't get close enough to get a whiff - thankfully, I think, from the name!

Hazel catkins

More catkins spotted - these little hazel catkins are already bobbing around on the tips of the hazel twigs. They're closed up (unripe) still, but it still feels quite early to me but I learned they're 'in flower' (because, yes, these are the flowers of the hazel tree) in late winter or early Spring, so perhaps we're not too far off!

Pheasant feather

I found this lovely brown feather on my walk a few weeks ago, so decided to put it in my nature journal. It has beautiful patterns of stripes and spots/speckles. I think it's likely to be a pheasant feather, perhaps from a wing or tail. I drew it life size in my journal.

P.S. It's really good to keep a stash of nature finds like this from throughout the year so that if you didn't get out in nature (in daylight) to see something, you still have something to add to your journal to continue with the feeling of being connected with nature and to practice drawing, looking, noticing, and feeling engaged with nature! (Photos are also good!)

Honesty - Lunaria annua

Honesty is another nature item that I have in my collection. I love it, so shimmery and shiny - so I loved sketching these 'silver pennies' for my nature journal. The name 'honesty' comes from the translucent seedheads that you can see the seeds through.

Birds spotted in my friend's garden

A visit to my friend gifted me with lots of amazing birds for my nature journal, all spotted in her garden with a bit of a feeding frenzy at the feeder with starlings gobbling at the feeders and pigeons pecking beneath, a dunnock and a blue tit visited the bird bath while a robin was busy at the window feeder, blackbirds pecking and flying, and a big magpie and even a cat watching over the whole proceedings!

Midwinter wildlife

Driving around before Christmas also delivered some cool wildlife sightings, including a huge Red Kite. We quite often see them, either in the fields near home or at my mum's house (they fly right over her town and we can see them out of the window of her house, flying quite close). This one was hovering low, right over the road in front of us so we could see how big it really was! Beautiful - it looked incredibly powerful. There was a little flock of goldfinches darting away, and the Red Kite's partner was being dive bombed by a pair of Buzzards and some crows...

Red Kite and Fox

We also spotted a fox running fast across the road in front of us, just before dark. He must've been chasing something (nothing appeared to be chasing him!).

And also, just before dark, we spotted and drove right under a starling murmuration - it looked like there were hundreds or thousands of tiny birds!

Starling murmuration and Grey Heron

Earlier in the day I'd also spotted a huge Grey Heron flying low over the car, with his huge wings and trailing yellow legs and feet.

Christmas nature journal page with holly, ivy and red berries (hawthorn, not holly!)

Christmas Day was too busy for nature journaling, but I got a quiet half hour or so for nature journaling on Boxing Day (26th December) and decided to journal something Christmassy - a holly leaf and an ivy leaf. I also thought red berries would be nice but my holly bush doesn't have any, so I journaled some red hawthorn berries I found, instead.

Kingfisher (spotted in the city centre)

The few days after Christmas were extremely foggy here - it didn't lift for three days - but I was rewarded with my favourite nature sighting for the month. We were lucky enough to spot a kingfisher, on the river right in the city centre of York on a very busy shopping day!

So even if you can't get to the countryside often, this proves that there's still amazing nature to see even in our city centres, if you just look out for it and find those little havens of nature that offer something to our animals, birds, and insects.

Wrens in oak tree

Another foggy day and another cool nature sighting - two little wrens hopping around the lower boughs of a young oak tree. I drew this one from memory, which I like to do sometimes, as it helps to cement the memory more firmly in my mind, as if I've taken a photo.

Drawing from life can be valuable for studying nature, but also so can just celebrating your own personal connection to nature by writing or drawing about what you've seen, in your own way.

This same oak tree was able to provide me with my final nature journal entry of December, and of 2024...

Oak gall

An interesting oak gall which is now easy to spot since all the leaves have fallen from the tree. This is a growth on the oak tree caused by a species of gall wasp which lays its eggs on the tree and causes the tree to respond by growing a little ball around the eggs which protect the eggs and young wasp larvae and also provide the initial food for them - you can actually see the spots which are little holes where (I'm assuming) the young wasps have emerged.

I hope you've enjoyed walking through my December nature journal pages with me. I've found it a little harder during this winter month to find interesting things in nature to draw, but I also like that this motivates me to maybe take an extra walk (in daylight) when I can and keep an eye out to see what I could include in my journal for that day...

I'm looking forward to seeing what I can find in January. Although it's still a winter month, as the days are lengthening again, I'm hoping that I'll start to see more signs of Spring appearing, which will be very interesting to see...

I hope that I've inspired you to perhaps start your own nature journal and feel confident that your nature journal pages don't have to be perfect - it's still fun to make the pages and it helps you feel more connected to nature which is sooo good for your wellbeing. If you'd like to get started, take a look at my free 'Getting Started with your First Nature Journal' PDF here...

I also have a short online course with 20 nature journaling exercises to help you feel confident in doing nature journaling your own way - find that here...

You can browse through more of my monthly nature journal pages and also find out more about nature journaling here...

Online Nature Journaling Course

If you'd like to explore nature journaling more, please consider joining me for my 'Imperfect Nature Journaling' online course - I've called it this to remind us to nature journal for the process of connecting with nature to feel good and not to put pressure on ourselves to create pretty pages which can quickly ruin the fun and the benefits...

It's a series of 20 lessons which are great exercises that you can do in your own nature journal to help you try out different ideas and techniques.

This will help you get the most out of your nature journaling sessions and understand what style of nature journaling is the best for you personally.

If this sounds like something you might like, you can find out more about the course here...